Category: News

Technology Podcasts for Librarians

Just in the past few months several new technology podcasts have launched which are useful for any librarian interested in technology.  A few address library technology topics specifically, while others cover general technology that has relevance to libraries.

Here are some of the best technology podcasts for librarians.

Library Technology


Library 20/20: A Podcast about the Future of Libraries

Library 20/20: A Podcast about the Future of LibrariesFollow along with Charlie Bennett as he talks through the renovation and modernization of the Georgia Tech Library as an example of the future of libraries, especially with the use of technology.

The Library Pros

The Library ProsThis new podcast (since March) is produced by Chris and Bob, a technology librarian and an “Information Technology professional” who cover new technology applicable to public libraries.

LibUX

LibUXCovering all aspects of the library user experience.  Amanda and Michael “talk design, development, and the user experience in libraries and the higher-ed web” with many guest contributors.

General Technology

TWiT Bits

TWiT BitsThese short podcasts present highlights from Leo Laporte’s longer This Week in Tech (TWiT) episodes at twit.tv.  TWiT keeps you up-to-date with all technology from computers to gadgets to the Web.  Topics also cover technology culture and politics.

W3 Radio

W3 RadioCurated and presented by librarian Michael Schofield, this brand-new podcast covers the week in Web technology in under ten minutes.

Free Articles on Institutional Repositories

Routledge, through - Taylor & Francis Group

Routledge announced that they are offering more than 50 articles for free through Taylor & Francis Online covering institutional repositories.  They are aimed at the scholarly communication librarian and cover the “basics of starting and maintaining an institutional repository, the impact of repositories on the open access movement and publishing, repositories for special collections, and institutional repositories around the world”.

Routledge is pleased to offer the Library & Information Science community free access to a collection of over 50 articles covering the topic of Institutional and Subject Repositories in academic libraries. The articles in this collection cover the basics of starting and maintaining an institutional repository, the impact of repositories on the open access movement and publishing, repositories for special collections, and institutional repositories around the world.

You can access the free articles from the Institutional Repositories & the Digital Library collection at Taylor & Francis Online until September 30, 2016.

2016 Library Conference Schedule

With 2016 just started, we are looking forward to this year’s batch of annual library conferences.  The list below covers large library technology conferences as well as the major conferences where technology will be discussed.

January #hashtag
8-12 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Boston, MA #ALAMW16
March
7-10 Code4Lib 2016, Philadelphia, PA #c4l16
8-12 Computers in Libraries 2016, Washington, DC #CILDC
16-17 Library Technology Conference 2016, St. Paul, MN #LTC2016
April
3-6 11th Annual ER&L Conference, Austin, TX #erl16
5-9 PLA Conference 2016, Denver, CO #PLA2016
14-15 DPLAfest 2016, Washington, DC #DPLAfest2016
June
12-14 SLA Annual Conference 2016, Philadelphia, PA #SLA2016
19-23 JCDL 2016, Newark, NJ #JCDL2016
23-28 ALA Annual Conference 2016, Orlando, FL #ALAAC16
August
13-19 IFLA World Library and Information Congress, Columbus, OH #wlic2016
October
14-18 ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark @asist_org
31-11/5 Charleston Conference, Charleston, SC @chsconf

For more comprehensive lists, see Douglas Hasty’s Library Conference Planner website or D-Lib Magazine.

Open Access Week 2015

Open Access Week

International Open Access Week starts today and runs from October 19 – 25, 2015.  For all of the details, visit www.openaccessweek.org.

Ways to Participate

Many organizations which embrace and promote open access are sponsoring events to encourage participation in open access resources.  Here are just a few of them.

TwitterFollow on Social Media

 

Follow and use the Twitter hashtag #OAWeek.

Open Access Week Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

WikipediaSPARC is partnering with Wikipedia to organize an Open Access Week Edit-a-thon with the purpose to improve open access-related content on Wikipedia.  “Specifically, we hope to improve already existing Open Access-related pages, to create new content where it needs to be added, and to translate Open Access-related pages into languages where they don’t yet exist.” Sign up to participate at The Wikimedia Library.

Learn about Paperity

PaperityPaperity is a “multidisciplinary aggregator of Open Access Journals and Papers” containing more than 2,200 journals and 400,000 articles.  It contains full-text articles from peer-reviewed scholarly sources.  Visit Paperity at paperity.org.

Subscribe to the C&RL RSS Feeds

College & Research Libraries is now an open access journal.  There is still a subscription fee for the print issues, but you can access the online versions for free.  Access the C&RL RSS Feeds page at crl.acrl.org/rss.

Get an ORCID iD

ORCID Open Access Week iD RegisterDo you have an ORCID iD?  ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID and is a unique 16-digit number which distinguishes you from other researchers in online resources.  Register for an ORCID iD at orcid.org/register.

Bake Some Cookies

Think open access only applies to online resources?  You can bake your very own cookies in the shape of the open access logo with a cookie cutter printed from your 3D printer using some open access cookie cutter printer files.  The scalable files are in .stl and .dae format and were created by Chip Wolfe from Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  Download the open access cookie cutter files.

Open Access Cookie Cutter

Consolidation of the Library Vendors

ProQuest EBSCO OCLC

With two recent announcements of mergers of well-known library vendors—ProQuest acquired Ex Libris and Bibliotheca bought 3M Library Systems—the number of independent library vendors is shrinking.

ProQuest is now a provider of research databases (ProQuest Central and others), ebooks (ebrary, EBL, and MyiLibrary), discovery tools (Summon and now Primo), link resolvers (Serials Solutions and now SFX), library management system (Alma and Intota), and print books (with the recent purchase of Coutts).

EBSCO is the next largest vendor in this shrinking field.  EBSCO offers research databases (EBSCOhost), ebooks (EBSCO eBooks and Audiobooks), a discovery tool (EBSCO Discovery Service), a link resolver (LinkSource), and print books (YBP Library Services).  EBSCO does not offer an ILS or LMS and one has to wonder if the company will go looking to acquire one.

OCLC is the third major competitor in the library services arena. OCLC does not provide content like ProQuest and EBSCO.  However, they offer a discovery tool (WorldCat) and a modern library management system (WorldShare Management Services).  OCLC also offers popular services such as a proxy service (EZproxy), interlibrary loan service (ILLiad), digital collection management tool (CONTENTdm), and a virtual reference system (QuestionPoint).

If your library is looking for a comprehensive library management / discovery service / link resolver solution, you now have three vendors.

Further Reading

American Libraries: ProQuest to Acquire Ex Libris

Globes: ProQuest to buy Israeli co Ex Libris for $500m

Ithaka S+R: What Are the Larger Implications of ProQuest’s Acquisition of Ex Libris?