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The Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE) is one of seven regional multitype library systems established to meet the needs of and share the resources of all types of libraries. We love libraries, and are here to support them!
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Four News Items on E-Content

E-Content

Some rights reserved by Joelstuff
Some rights reserved by
Joelstuff

The following snippets are shared with permission from the  02/26/14 electronic issue of American Libraries Direct, American Libraries Association

Sharing ebooks on the Razor’s edge
James LaRue writes: “The Greater Western Library Alliance of 33 academic libraries may have hit on something by wielding the library equivalent of Occam’s Razor to shave its members’ collective ILL woes. Its product, the work of program developers at Texas Tech University and the University of Hawaii–Manoa, is called Occam’s Reader. It pilots an approach, in as straightforward a manner as possible, that allows universities to share their ebooks without giving away the store.”…
AL: E-Content, Feb. 25

Publishing has entered a new era
Brian O’Leary writes: “We are moving inexorably toward what I have called a ‘pre-book world’: a living manifestation of the development, refinement, and extension of a particular work. At various points, an object—a book or ebook—may be rendered, but it will be a subset of a conversation that includes content, comments, annotations, and sources. The internet has shifted traditional publishing from a gatekeeping role (deciding what will be published) to a truer form of curation (managing the communities and conversations that will inform a rendered component).”…
The Bookseller: FutureBook, Feb. 20

Epic! app offers children’s books
A new startup called Epic! brings a totally kid-friendly bookshelf and book reading experience to the iPad. Cofounded by online gaming veteran Suren Markosian and former YouTube exec Kevin Donahue, Epic is an all-you-can-read app aimed at kids aged 12 and under that provides access to some 2,000 titles for online and offline reading. The subscription service costs $9.99 per month….
TechCrunch, Feb. 24

GPO expands ebook program
The US Government Printing Office is expanding the agency’s ebook program through its Federal Depository Library Program to increase public access to information. The public now has free access to ebook titles using GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications. The first release includes approximately 100 titles, and GPO will continue work with federal agencies to make new titles available each month….
US Government Printing Office, Feb. 25

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Another Perspective on Books for Boys

http://tinyurl.com/98s54da
http://tinyurl.com/98s54da

Our friends at ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) question the notion of “books for boys” and encourage us to think beyond gender when providing readers advisory to boys and girls. Point well taken. Read their rationale, and to back up their assertion, they provide a list of titles they’ve recommended to guys recently too! Some of the titles may surprise you. Feel free to add your ideas and suggestions!

Links to previous posts on this subject include:

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Better Library Experiences for Birds

bird_fatalities_20120425_1810459058Soon hopefully, our fine, feathered friends will be coming back to grace us with their song and beauty. When we think about “library experience” we most often think of humans, but it never occured to me that birds may have a less than satisfactory experience with the library as they crash into our large expanses of glass! No solution has yet proven to be 100 percent effective in ending all fatal bird strikes, but there is information available about new styles of window decals that  will help to decrease the numbers of birds that meet such an untimely death.

See the student designed stencil, and read the full article at http://tinyurl.com/mk2pbsg

Related point of levity….see the Birds on a Wire post, about how someone put music to the position of birds sitting on a wire! Sounds way too goofy? It ended up Winner of the YouTube Play Guggenheim Biennial Festival!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

New App for Braille & Talking Book Library

TO: Minnesota Library Staff
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: February 27, 2014
SUBJECT: MN BARD

MDE logo retrieved online 12/17/13..
MDE logo retrieved online 12/17/13..

New Download Service for Qualified Users

The Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library, which provides direct library service to individuals who cannot read standard print materials, has a new service available for  library patrons. Through MN BARD (Minnesota Braille and Audio Reading Download) or an iOS app, BARD Mobile (download BARD Mobile from iTunes), it offers patrons access to 52,000 downloadable audio and braille books and magazines.

To support patrons who may be eligible to use MN BARD, public libraries can apply for demonstration-only accounts. Demonstration accounts offer a test drive of the service through access to sample titles. Full access to the growing collection is limited to qualified and registered users. MN BARD is maintained by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a division of the Library of Congress, which accepts applications for the service. Fill out an application.

For more information about the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library or MN BARD, please contact Catherine Durivage at 507-384-6860 or Catherine.durivage@state.mn.us.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Free Webinar: Weeding Your Fiction Collection
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Free Booklist presentation!

Weeding Tips: Tackling Fiction
Fiction is one of the more daunting weeding projects. After all, it can be difficult to remain objective when it comes to fiction, and the helpful rules for weeding nonfiction, based on outdated or superseded information, don’t apply here. Join us for this free, hour-long webinar with Booklist Reference and Collection Management editor Rebecca Vnuk, who will talk about the many variables of weeding adult fiction, and Simmons College associate professor Amy Pattee, who will cover youth and YA fiction. Representatives from our sponsor, collectionHQ, will showcase how their transfer tool can identify titles that can be transferred between collections to maximize weeding efforts.Can’t make the date? Register anyway so a link to the video archive of this webinar can be e-mailed to you after the event.Please note: As a webinar registrant, you will receive follow-up correspondence from Booklist Publications and may receive other special offers from our sponsors. We will not sell your e-mail to outside parties, although we may share it with other similar publications of the ALA. If the sponsors choose to communicate with you by e-mail, they are obligated to provide you with an opportunity to opt-out from future e-mails in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act of 2003.

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