I have many reasons to distrust digital books. The moves to restrict library lending and control patron usage are high on the list: Just to be clear, this means that eBook ownership now expires after a set number of uses. Libraries no longer “own” the rights to the purchased titles for perpetuity. This is a [...]

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As part of a project for my library I am reading Taran Rampersad’s Making Your Mark in Second Life: Business, Land, and Money and found this observation on virtual real estate, well, darkly comic in light of the last 18 months: Mainland real estate is a very interesting thing. Because the land is purchased through [...]

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Two headlines from ArsTechnica.Com: Internet searches may strengthen the aging brain And: Add Internet addiction to psychiatric disorders, says doctor So in 50 years we’ll see a lot of smart, neurotic people plodding around. Sounds like home. Tags: InterWebz, information technology, information literacy

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A youth group of knitters, ages 6-10 years old, were kicked out of an eastern Ontario library. Here’s the rationale: Pamela Haley, manager of library services for the united counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, said the ban on crafts was put on place because the municipality is revamping its 18 library branches in an [...]

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From Neha Tiwari.

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Several more prominent blogs have linked to this already — including Matt Bors, whose blog tipped me to it — but I want to share this with some of my colleagues in the information professions (i.e., librarians.) Graphic designer Erica Smith has created Paper Cuts, a graphical blog that uses Google Maps to track layoffs [...]

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No MySpace Please Originally uploaded by Jeff Kreger Found via Tame the Web. This is what Teen Spaces are for, peoplez.

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Every Saturday morning on my way to work at the reference desk of PCC’s Rock Creek Library, I tune into the best rock music radio show I have heard since Doctor Demento in the early ’80s. Greasy Kid Stuff, hosted by DJs Belinda and Nova, is so great that They Might Be Giants wrote a [...]

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If you are familiar with flock, then feel free to ignore this post. I am testing its blog posting features. My friend/colleague/fellow theory monkey Allie got me curious about flock, a web browser designed for managing all the social software tools that one can’t seem to live without these days. It’s actually pretty handy to [...]

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Kimberly Pauley has announced the winners of the Swan Kingdom Giveaway Contest. Competing for one of five free copies of Zoe Marriott’s The Swan Kingdom, contestants answered the question, “If you could be any character from any fairy tale (traditional, new, or re-imagined), which character would you be and why?” This one’s my favorite: Judith [...]

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