Monthly Archives: January 2016

Library Corner: 1-5-2015

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Library corner imageHere is this week’s roundup of library news:

US Library News:

North Carolina: State program helps public libraries share books (The News & Observer)

Tennessee: For Internet To Go, Check The Library (NPR)

International Library News:

UK: British Librarians Are Suing Government Over Library Closings (AdWeek)

New Zealand: ‘Born-digital’ records a minefield for archivists (ZD Net)

Policy and Privacy:

New report looks to future of libraries building digitally inclusive communities (ALA News)

Shaping the Library to the Life of the User: Adapting, Empowering, Partnering, Engaging (OCLC)

191 million voters’ personal info exposed by misconfigured database (Databreaches)

Copyright:

Authors challenge Google’s book copying project (SCOTUS Blog)

Anne Frank’s diary can be copied for scientific research: court (Dutch News.NL)

US Copyright Office Wants Your Input on the DMCA Rule-Making Process (The Digital Reader)

Reference and Statistics:

Lists: Top Book Check Outs of 2015 at the New York Public Library (Systemwide, by Borough, by Branch) (Infodocket)

Digital Collections:

Archives: Fascinating finds in National Library of Israel Jewish newspaper archive (Jewish Heritage Europe)

Bronx Black History Archives Open to Public (Fordham News)

New Manuscripts From the National Library of Greece (Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts)

Researchers building digital archive on WWI poetry by American immigrants (KU)

FILLING IN DIGITAL BLANKS OF HISTORIC TEXTS: Engineering students fix common glitch in digitization of books published before 1700 (Northwestern)

Osher Map Library at University of Southern Maine digitizes its rare globe collection (Portland Press Herald)

Literary Journal: Complete, Searchable Digital Archive of the “Jewish Book Annual” Now Available Online (Infodocket)

About once a week, I post links to digital-related library news articles and information about digital collections available online.  I also post other links of interest about the digital life daily on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

CES Roundup for 1-4-2016

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CES_Logo_smCES 2016 starts on January 6, 2016. Here is roundup of some of the interesting early stories about CES 2016:

If you are going to the event, thanks to the crazy world we live in, there are all kinds of fun new security measures.

LG made an 18-inch display you can roll up like a newspaper (The Verge) – Forget e-ink, this looks interesting…

The Acer Iconia One 8 Android tablet is made for families and priced at just $100 (Android Central) – With an 8 inch form factor and lots of parental controls, depending on its performance, this could be a winner.

This company wants to unclog your Wi-Fi (The Verge) – We have a ways to go on this, but it is going to be great!

New Chromebooks From Acer, Lenovo Debut at CES 2016 (OMG Chrome) – New model Chromebooks on the horizon. And they are going to be pretty!

No, I am not going to CES, but I love reading about the gadgets. I will be doing these roundup posts intermittently during the week. The official CES website is here.

Did you know that Amazon has a page for products from CES2016? You can find it here.

Daily Links: How the Internet changed the way we read

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daily_links_1Daily Links for day, January 4, 2016:

How the Internet changed the way we read (Daily Dot) – More on the concept of digital distraction.

GQ Tells Readers to Turn Off Ad Blockers or Pay Up (Fortune) – Do you want to read this badly enough to turn off your ad blocker?

Will 2016 be the year web advertisers realise we don’t want to be monitored? (The Guardian) – No, we all really LOVE ads!

“What Does My Site Cost?” Tells You How Much a Mobile Visitor Pays to See a Site (The Digital Reader) – Here is a way to find out if your website need to lose weight.

Amazon’s Other App Store, Alexa’s “Skills” Section, Has Quietly Grown To Over 130 Apps (Techcrunch) – Alexa, you sneaky girl! Did you know that the Amazon Echo had its own app store?

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deals includes The Choice  by Nicholas Sparks for $2.99.

Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is  PULP!: Two Thriller Novels and a Novella to Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat! by Vincent Zandri for 99 cents.The Romance Daily Find is Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller for $2.99

Kobo has Silver Palate Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso for $2.99.

iTunes’ Weekly Sellers for Under $4 includes Jonathan Kellerman’s When the Bough Breaks for $1.99.

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

Daily Links: 5 Things That Will Disappear In 5 Years

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daily_links_1Daily Links for Sunday, January 2, 2016:

5 Things That Will Disappear In 5 Years (Techcrunch) –  I am not sure that I agree with this list, no more than I would agree that books are goint to disappear, but it is interesting….

How Medium is breaking Washington’s op-ed habit (Politico) – Twitter has changed the way we get news so it is food for thought.

Infographic: Reading Has Its Benefits (The Digital Reader) – Reading more stress reducing than tea? Really? Who would have thought?

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal includes Lisa Jackson’s  You Don’t Want To Know for $1.99. There is also a selection of for 50 Kindle books for $2 each to choose from, as well as over 60 select history books at up to 85% off.

Amazon is also offering a Chromo Inc Tablet – 7 inch HD touchscreen Android Tablet  for $42 today as one of its Daily Deals.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook Daily Find is Murder Freshly Baked(Amish Mystery Series) by Vannetta Chapman for $1.99.  The Romance Daily Find is Seduction of a Highland Lass (McCabe Trilogy #2) by Maya Banks for $1.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is The Ian Rutledge Starter by Charles Todd for $1.99. This is a four book volume which includes the titles A Test of Wills, A Long Shadow, A False Mirror, and A Pale Horse.

The iTunes Weekly Bestsellers under $4 includes Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants for $1.99.

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

What’s Your Old Kindle Worth? (Updated)

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Kindle trade in

Amazon has a promotion going on encouraging you to trade in your old Kindle. It sounds pretty simple. You answer a few questions about your Kindle’s condition to get a trade in quote. Then, print the label and send it in. Amazon will verify the condition and apply a gift card to your account.  You also receive a $20 discount good towards the purchase of a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage or Kindle for Kids bundle.

You can trade in any of the following e-ink Kindles:

  • 1st Generation Kindle
  • Kindle 2nd Gen Free 3G
  • Kindle 2nd Gen U.S. Wireless
  • Kindle 5th Gen (black) Wi-Fi
  • Kindle 4th Gen (graphite) Wi-Fi
  • Kindle Touch Wi-Fi
  • Kindle Touch Wi-Fi + 3G
  • Kindle DX (white) 3G
  • Kindle DX (white) U.S. Wireless
  • Kindle DX (graphite) 3G
  • Kindle Keyboard (white) Wi-Fi + 3G
  • Kindle Keyboard (graphite) Wi-Fi
  • Kindle Keyboard (graphite) Wi-Fi + 3G
  • Kindle Paperwhite 6th Gen Wi-Fi
  • Kindle Paperwhite 6th Gen Wi-Fi + 3G
  • Kindle Paperwhite 5th Gen Wi-Fi
  • Kindle Paperwhite 5th Gen Wi-Fi + 3G

Have a broken one? No worries. Even non-working Kindles are eligible for trade-in.

There are limitations, terms and conditions to the offer which expires on March 31, 2015*. You can find out more info here.

I have several working 1st generation Kindles I need to decide what to do with. This might be worth checking into as an option, although the last time I checked the trade in values, they weren’t offering a lot. I think it would be a no-brainer for a non-working device or one whose battery doesn’t hold a charge anymore. It is a great incentive to recycle or upgrade a device.

Are you interested in trading in your old Kindle towards a new one?

*Updated to add that I think this may be a misprint as the promotion just appeared, but I am  checking with Amazon to verify.

*Update 2: I spoke to Kindle customer service and they assured me that this offer is indeed still valid. The CS rep I spoke to also thought that this was a typo (it is the first day of 2016) and that would be she would be initiating a support request for someone to check the web page copy. 

*Update 3: The first date was a typo. This offer ends on March 31, 2016.

Happy Public Domain Day 2016

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pdd2016January 1st is the day that works with expiring copyrights would enter the public domain. In the United states, the number of works entering the public domain is zero. Because of extensions in US Copyright law, no works will enter the public domain here until 2019. 😦

Every year, the Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain website writes about the works that would have entered the public domain under the old copyright laws.  This year, works from the year 1959 would have entered the public domain: Films like North by Northwest by Hitchcock, Books like Goldfinger by Ian Fleming, music like Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, early episodes TV series like Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone or Rawhide, classic science fiction like Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and Walter Miller’s exquisite Canticle for Leibowitz.

For me personally, Miller’s Canticle for Leibowitz is a particular travesty because it is not yet available as an ebook, although you can get it in paper (from a publisher I’ve never heard of) or in audio. I suspect the book is an absolute rights nightmare. If you read the Wikipedia entry on the novel, it says that it was originally published as magazine articles, then as a hardcover, and has been published in both paper and hardcover over 40 times since then. The original book publisher itself has changed hands several times.  Even the NPR radio play version has been been removed from the Internet Archive due to rights issues.

Sigh.

Anyway, as you ponder the fact that the Kindle version of Starship Troopers that’s selling for $9.99 could actually be free in some alternate universe with different copyright laws, check out Duke’s article on the work that would have entered the public domain this year. There’s a special section for pre-1976 copyrights whose copyrights would have expired. The article addresses the orphan works issues as well.