Brewer, Week 5 Readings

Accross the digital divide:

A passionate testimony from Seanan McGuire about the importance of printed books being utilized and how important they were as a young child growing up...and still today electronic devices not always being a choice or economic ability for many.  Seanan explained how this could and in her view would affect the information continuing to be gathered and shared.  Many responders felt the same...sharing similiar stories.  There were a few that believed there were other subsidized ways for people to obtain.  There were several posts from elderly people that found the e-books to be a less painful and useful method.


RFID in Libraries: by Caldwell-Stone:

This was an overview with contrasting opinions if the RFID electronic devices to lessen tasks in a library and increase the operating ability should be used.  There is a passive tag wit much shorter distance of operation...and an active tag powered by battery or other power source.  The invasions of personal privacy was at the root of the debate....with San Francisco Library Commission in 2003 approving to use for circulation...followed by protests and a hearing in California State Senate later 2003.  After Best Practice initiatives were identified and in place these electronic devices are in place.

The Koha Saga:  A Gift that Keeps Giving: by Moody

This was interesting as I read after our other article comparing this open source.  Koha was a project that took off, was eventually sold to LibLime in the U.S. including copyright and source code.  Koha and their community in New Zealand grew concerned this project was growing in nature and wanted to secure the koha.org domain for their community only.  There was interaction between the companies with Koha finally having donations of funding and services by lawyers prepared if necessary to fight the case.  LibLime made what sounded like a generous offer with the two companies seeming to arrive at an agreement.  But there was a lesson learned...when project is in early stages, how important it is to protect copyright and ensure it stays with individual contributors or an independant foundation...you never know what service or product you might be developing.

The Next Generation Library Catalog:  by Yang and Hoffmann

This article was comparing two open source systems Koha and Evergreen with a third Web Voyage which is a proprietary source....and determining what the next generation catalogue "should" be...and which of these systems provided measurements for users.  In the end Koha provided 6 of 10 features.  Since I read this article first...it made the "Koha Sage" article very interesting for me.

Examing the Role of Libraries in an E-book World: by Joss

This article starts out with a brief quiz concerning public libraries.  I did get 6 of 9 correct...and it was interesting to see the answers...where in two women were found to rate higher than men.  The real value of the article is how rooted into the libraries are e-books, the pros and cons.  In this brief article you learn publishers hold control.  There are two ways for libraries to add e-books to their library.  We were shown contraversy that HarperCollins created and the reactions from authors and public libraries.Very interesting article with a few stats.

The readings this week provided quite a bit of variaty and did allow you to think in different ways about the topics.  I could see myself on both sides of the digital divide knowing my work has experienced having to change our practice and training of staff due to lessened print demand.  So I could for sure connect this trend.  With that said...I myself at times want to access information via electronic devices...but I never want to see paper books leave...and will always have a special place and desire for books.  I do know when I read for classes...I want something on paper to read and write my notes.The two articles with Koha were next interesting for me....and was a brief explanation of what the product ended up being....with how careful you need to learn to be with projects, products that are being developed.  This case seems to have a good ending at this time, but we know that is not what usually happens in the business world.  I know from studying at IU in music...there were many young musicians who hit it big...and have no money now due to the same type of bad management/knowledge.