Library Corner 10-13-2015

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.

Library Corner 10-6-2015

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

US Library News:

Video: Librarian, Developer, and Entrepreneur, Jason Griffey Discusses LibraryBox and Other Projects at Harvard’s Berkman Center (Infodocket)

The Public Library’s New Role As Community Center (KNPR)

International Library News:

National Library facing insolvency unless jobs are slashed with ‘financial fragility a major risk’ to future (Wales Online)

The British Library Outlines Plan to Create a National Radio Archive (Infodocket)

Patrons’ data not kept in U.S.: Regina Public Library head (Leader-Post)

Banned Books Roundup:

Yes, We Still Need Banned Book Week (The Digital Reader)

I’m a librarian who banned a book. Here’s why. (The Conversation)

Band Books Week 2015! (Library Journal)

How do libraries get away with banning books? (The Conversation)

Policy and Privacy:

Privacy is doomed, warns incoming university librarian (Berkeley News)

Google Will Target Ads Using Email Addresses (WSJ)

Copyright:

Open Licensing Policy Toolkit (DRAFT) (Creative Commons)

Reference and Statistics:

New corporate spending database (Politico)

NLM Releases New Research Resource for Domestic Violence (NIH)

Digital Collections:

The Guggenheim Puts Online 1600 Great Works of Modern Art from 575 Artists (Open Culture)

Open Library of Humanities Officially Launched (OLH)

Roundup of Kindle Fire Reviews

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

Since I didn’t buy one of the new Fire tablets myself, I have been avidly reading reviews on the new product line. I thought it would be nice to do a roundup of some of the reviews I’ve read. This is a mix of text and video reviews. There are also several comparison reviews.

For the 7″ Fire:

First Look: Amazon ‘s $50 Fire Tablet (Teleread)

New Fire tablet doesn’t like ebooks stored on an SD card but it’s in stock at Best Buy (The Digital Reader)

Fire Tablet First Impressions video (The eBook Reader)

Here are two video reviews from The Kindle Chronicles’ Len Edgerly:

First, a video review of the 7″ Fire:

Then, a video comparison between the new Fire 7″ and 8″ tablets:

For the Fire HD 8:

Amazon Fire HD 8 – (PC Magazine)

Amazon’s new Fire HD 8 adds removable memory and more (Techcrunch)

For the Fire HD 10:

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 10 Review (Mashable)

Amazon’s new Kindle HD 10 – Not the tablet anyone is looking for (Extreme Tech)

Amazon Fire HD 10 roundup: first impressions of Experts (TechTimes)

Fire HD 10 comparison review vs Lenovo Tab 2 A10 Tablet (The eBook Reader)

There are some interesting insights in the reviews, especially about the tablets’ OS, speed, resolution, and working with the SD memory card.

Also worth noting is this post about the warranty on the 7″ model. In case you missed the fine print on the product page, that $50 Fire only comes with a 90 day warranty.

So far, I am pretty happy with my decision not to buy. I may change my mind when the new OS 5 Bellini update hits my two Fire HD 6 tablets, but so far, I haven’t read anything that tempts me to buy one.

How about you?

Cases and covers for the new Fire tablets

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

The new $49.99 7″ Fire tablet was released today, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the covers and cases that are available for the new Fire tablets. The new devices are labeled as the 5th generation and the cases for them are also identified as 5th generation – 2015 release.

The bad news is that there aren’t very many yet, especially if you prefer the generally lower-cost option of a third-party case. And, cases that fit the new devices are currently only available from Amazon. That means nothing on eBay or other sites yet. The good news is that is a variety of styles, colors and price ranges are already listed on the site and for sale .

Here is what’s currently available:

For the 7″ Fire:

Amazon Fire Case (5th Generation – 2015 release), Black – Price is $24.95. Made by Amazon. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet closure and a built in stand that can be used horizontally or vertically. The case allows access to all ports and buttons. Available in black, blue, green, magenta and tangerine.

NuPro Fire Slim Standing Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $19.99. Made by NuPro. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet closure and a built in stand that can only be used in the landscape position. Available in Black, navy, pink, purple, and turquoise.

NuPro Fire Standing Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $14.99. Made by NuPro. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can only be used in the landscape position. Available in Black, navy, pink, purple, and turquoise.

For the 8″ Fire HD:

Amazon Fire HD 8 Leather Case (5th Generation – 2015 release)– Price is $49.99. Made by Amazon. This case is premium natural leather with a matching microfibre interior, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can be used horizontally or vertically. The case allows access to all ports and buttons. Available in black and gray.

Amazon Fire HD 8 Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $39.99. Made by Amazon. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can be used horizontally or vertically. Available in black, blue, green, magenta and tangerine.

NuPro Fire HD 8 Slim Standing Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $24.99. Made by NuPro. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can only be used in the landscape position. Available in Black, navy, pink, purple, and turquoise.

For the 10″ Fire HD:

Amazon Fire HD 10 Keyboard Case (5th Generation – 2015 release)– Price is $99.99. Made by Amazon. This is a protective case with an integrated, full size keyboard with track pad. The shortcut keys provide access to e-mail, media controls and volume. Available in black only.

Amazon Fire HD 10 Leather Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $64.99. Made by Amazon. This case is premium natural leather with a matching microfibre interior, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can be used horizontally or vertically. Available in black and gray.

Amazon Fire HD 10 Case (5th Generation – 2015 release) – Price is $49.99. Made by Amazon. This case is polyurethane, has a magnet sleep closure and a built in stand that can be used horizontally or vertically. Available in black, blue, green, magenta and tangerine.

All of these say that they cases only fit the new 5th generation Fire tablets.

I will be doing a follow-up post when more new third-party cases become available. I happen to be a total case junkie, so if you bought one of the new Fires with a case, please leave a comment and let us know what you thought of the case. 🙂

Library Corner 9-29-2015

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

US Library News:

An Introduction to Law Library Services (Pro Se)

BPL assessing rare book section after mold outbreak (Bostone Globe)

New LA libraries program turns ‘story time’ into hands-on ‘coder time’ (KPCC)

International Library News:

UK and China sign MoUs on sport, libraries, fashion and tourism (GOV.UK)

National Library of Scotland Releases New Strategy Document, Includes Plan to Place One-Third of Collection Online During Next 10 Years (Infodocket)

Policy and Privacy:

Libraries File Amicus Brief Supporting Net Neutrality (ARL)

Copyright:

Happy Birthday IS in the public domain (The 1709 Blog)

Reference and Statistics:

OpenLandContracts.org: A Database of Publicly Available Land, Agriculture and Forestry Contracts (CCSI)

New USPTO Tool Allows Exploration of 40 Years of Patent Data (USPTO)

Passenger Travel Facts and Figures 2015 (DOT)

New interactive application showcases habitat and wildlife restoration underway on the Great Lakes (Great Lakes Commission)

IPI launches new online media laws database (IPI)

Scientists create the first digital ‘tree of life’ for 2.3 million species (Christian Science Monitor)

Digital Collections:

How Esquire built Esquire Classic, a new standalone digital archive (Nieman Labs)

The 550,000 miles of undersea cables that power the internet (The Kids Should See This)

Paper Museum” Goes Digital (Getty)

Introducing a Great New Experience for Reading Books on NAP.edu (NAP)

New Digital Archive at University of Utah Examines the Complicated and Multi-dimensional Sides of Suicide (University of Utah)

American Numismatic Society Introduces Digital Library (Coin Week)

Banned Books Week 9-27-2015 to 10-3-2015

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

This week is Banned Books Week! This is an annual event where the book community celebrates the freedom to read and rallies against censorship. According to the event’s official website:

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. There were 311 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2014, and many more go unreported.

Many libraries and bookstore will be hosting events and showcasing special displays of books that have been challenged in the past. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom defines a challenges as “a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”

Some of the titles are surprising and include many well-loved classics. Both Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham were on this list from Encyclopedia Britannica.

There are a number of resources available with information about books which have been banned. Infodocket has a list of resources here to start you out. You can also follow the topic on social media using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek.

Ironically, so many of my personal favorites have been challenged at one time or another. I was thinking of re-reading Daniel Keyes classic, Flowers for Algernon. What about you? Do you have a favorite banned book?

Library Corner: 9-22-2015

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

US Library News:

PEW Report: Libraries at the Crossroads (Pew)

Library of Congress Acquires Legendary Comedian Jerry Lewis’ Personal Archive (LOC)

Stanford Health Library, in new digs, celebrates 25th anniversary this year (Stanford)

Spoke-n-words Bike Library (Madison Public Library)

Tennessee mom calls Henrietta Lacks book ‘pornographic,’ seeks to have it banned in school (LA Times)

Community Biology Lab Opens In La Jolla Library (KPBS)

International Library News:

Scotland: Library staff ‘increasingly forced to deal with antisocial behaviour’ (STV)

Policy and Privacy:

Privacy – Who Needs It? (Library Freedom Project)

Copyright:

Ninth Circuit “Dancing Baby” Copyright Decision: A Quick Read for the Busy Practitioner (Trademark and Copyright)

Georgia’s legal battle with public records advocate deepens (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Reference and Statistics:

Reference: New Data, Reports, Statistics on Poverty, Income and Health Insurance Coverage Released Today (Infodocket)

Data: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Releases Medicare Part D Prescriber Look-up Tool (Infodocket)

Visualize the Topography of Wages in America with the Living Wage Map (The American Surveyor)

Reference: Census Bureau Releases New Online Data Tool For Entrepreneurs and Small Business Researchers (Infodocket)

Updated Interactive Reference Resource: Vegetation Map For Africa (Infodocket)

An Analysis of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States by Country and Region of Birth (Migration Policy)

Digital Collections:

A Film Festival of Kick Ass Kung Fu/Martial Arts Films in the Public Domain (Open Culture)

Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (LOC)

CIA to Release Declassified President’s Daily Brief Articles from Kennedy and Johnson Administrations CIA)

British Movietone Digital Archives Online (Eastman’s Online Genealogy)

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries available as e-books

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

I always get excited when I see that entire series of backlist books have been released as e-books. As a lover of mystery novels, I was delighted to discover that all 47 of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries are now available in versions for the Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iPad.

The corpulent Nero Wolfe is a perennial favorite among lovers of armchair detective mysteries. The series of Books is comprised of 33 novels and 39 short stories and novellas which have been adapted into radio, film and television versions.. The series begins with the 1934 Fer-de-Lance, and concludes with the posthumously published volume of three stories, Death Times Three. You can read more about the series on its Wikipedia page.

So. The good news is that the books are now available in e-versions. The bad news is, the pricing for the books is all over the map. Thirty of the books in the series are priced at $7.99, which is the exact same price as the paperback versions. Fifteen of the books are priced as high as $11.99. The prices on the other two varied from $2.99 to $7.99, depending on the retailer. The order of the books doesn’t seem to be a factor. Book 1, Fer-de-Lance, is $7.99. Book 2, The League of Frightened Men, is $11.99. The covers are also inconsistent. Some of the books have new covers; others do not.

Needless to say, the pricing was a deal-breaker for me. Like most mystery lovers, I am a serial reader and I would have bought the whole series if they had been priced along the lines of how Amazon priced the Ed McBain 87th Precinct mysteries ($1.99 to $4.99) or the Gladys Mitchell Mrs. Bradley mysteries ($1.99 to $3.99). I don’t know if this is protectionist pricing for the new Nero Wolfe novels by Robert Goldsborough’s Nero wolfe mysteries, but the prices are just too high, especially if you want them all. 😦 I think Random House’s agency pricing is showing.

Since these are now available as e-books, I am hoping that soon we also might see The Nero Wolfe Cookbook finally come out as an e-book. The cookbook features excerpts from the books alongside recipes for dishes served in the Nero Wolfe mysteries. The hardcover is great for the kitchen, but the book is as much a joy to read as it is to cook from….

Amazon announces new Fire tablets, TV boxes

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Glinda Harrison

Amazon has announce their new Fire lineup. There are three new Fire tablets, two new Fire TV devices and an upgraded Fire for kids.

For the new tablets, Amazon has / is released a new version of its Fire operating system, Fire OS 5, “Bellini.” All of the new tablets have a slot for a micro SD card.

The new 7″ Fire: – Retails for $49.95, with special offers. Released on September 30, 2015. Amazon obviously intends this one for gift giving: They are offering a special promotion to buy five tablets and get one free. (Details for the offer are here. Note that the resolution on this tablet is only 171 ppi / 1024 x 600, so it is not considered an HD tablet .
The new Fire HD 8: retails for $149.95 and up, with special offers. Released on September 30, 2015. Available with either 8 GB or 16 GB of internal storage.
The new Fire HD 10: Retails for $229.95 and up, with special offers. Released on September 30, 2015. Available with either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage.
The new Fire Kids Edition, 7, Retails for $99.99. This replaces the prior, 6″ version and with a lower price point. Released on September 30, 2015. The SD memory card slot is going to be a very attractive draw for this tablet. There were a lot of complaints about insufficient memory during for the prior version.

In my opinion, the big news with these tablets is the pricing and the expandable memory. Note that the higher end HDX devices and are no longer showing in the Fire family ribbon. (The Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and the Fire HDX 8.9 are still for sale new on the site. The Fire HD 6 Kids Edition is still available as well.) Amazon is obviously focusing on lower pricing with the new line up. Also interesting is the fact that there were no new 4G LTE versions in the new lineup

Amaon also announce three new Fire TV series updates:

A new, updated Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote featuring Alexa. Retails for $49.99. Released on October 22, 2015. Hopefully, this version corrects some of the frequent Wi-Fi connection problems I have heard about with the first version….
The new Amazon Fire TV box featuring Alexa and 4K Ultra HD. Retails for $99.00. Released on October 5, 2015.
A new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition that includes a gaming controller. It also features 75% more processing power than the previous generation Amazon Fire TV, better Wi-Fi support with dual-band 802.11ac, a dedicated graphics engine, 2 GB of memory and Dolby sound. Released on October 5, 2015.

So, does anything strike your fancy?