I want one…or at least an old version when they clearance out. Apparently Amazon is releasing a new version of the Kindle next year. The article that I linked to said there are some competitor products coming out soon as well. Hmm..Do you think they will all be $360? I could buy a whole lot of books for that kind of cash. A LOT of quarter books. Problem is I’d have to buy a new bookshelf…

And in other news I did my very first booktalk last night and I didn’t bomb! I did blush but I was standing right by the heater. People laughed and everything. Good thing since I was doing humorous essays. When I was picking quotes I was having visions of people sitting there silently so laughter was very reassuring.

I get quite a few hits on the post “It’s like I run a book rescue” I wrote last year. I guess people enjoy seeing bookshelves. I understand appeal; I love looking at what people have on their shelves. Never judging, of course, because I have some truly atrocious books on my own shelf. For those who enjoy perusing shelves, I suggest you divert your prying eyes over to the Flickr group “Bookshelf Project“. It has a bunch of members and over 3000 photos of bookshelves. I need to join!

P.S. I updated my Helpful Resources page with some fabulous finds. Check it out.

So tonight I was uploading items to my OMEKA collection and getting stumped on the metadata. All my buttons have union labels on them and I was unsure about putting them in the description field. The cataloger in me said “Do it” but the real person in me said “So what?” My inner cataloger was happy to find this article from Progressive Librarian. The article is titled “Proposal for Inclusion of Union Label Description in Bibliographic and Archival Cataloging Guidelines” and it, obvious from the title, advocates including union information when cataloging. I know that this isn’t exactly cataloging but it definitely feels a lot like it. I think that union information is  pertinent information to include when recording metadata for accuracy’s sake as well as the fact that it’s important to acknowledge history and the people who crafted the items we are preserving. However, if I am wrong and it’s just cluttering up the description field, please let me know.

Now if you will excuse me I am about to partake in some Hulu.

On Thursday it was announced that Google reached a deal with the International Children’s Digital Library that will allow the sharing of both Google and ICDL’s public domain children’s book titles. These titles will be available through Google Book Search and ICDL. The press release sounds like it could increase ICDL’s collection by thousands of titles. How cool for the ICDL!

I received American Libraries yesterday and today I decided to read it. I’m really bad about reading magazine because I get so many. Seriously. Like at least 10 subscriptions. I get a little overwhelmed and then don’t read them. Anyway, I enjoyed this issue of AL. and I learned that it’s now open access! Now anyone can has access to issues dating back to January 2003. This will be good for comps studying as I’ve only been a member of ALA since last year.
I also read about Drupal, an open source content management system. It looks pretty easy to use and is good for managing static and dynamic elements. You can manage photos and videos as well as forums and blogs. There are themes to choose from and a WYSIWYG editor. So I guess it’s like WordPress but with more features.
The article gave some examples of libraries currently using Drupal for their sites. These include the Ann Arbor District Library, Jackson (Michigan) District Library, and Darien (Connecticut) Library. Tools like this make things so much easier for libraries and those with digital collections. You don’t have to know programming and you can do so much! for free! or donations, whatever. Drupal allows anyone (not just tech people) can manage sites and, with budget cuts and pink slips abound, this is comforting.

I took my baby to vote with me this morning and while we were standing in line, a man said “Well, she’s making history.” Phoebe, of course, was oblivious, she just wanted a cookie. But that man was right. I can not believe that today I got to vote for someone so wonderful and inspirational and so full of promise. and he’s black. I should be able to believe it because it’s the 21st century but I know that not 50 years ago things were so very different. I came across a collection of haunting images taken by Charles Moore, a contract photographer for Life Magazine in the 1950s and 60s. Click on the tags to see the pictures.

For more on civil rights, go to The Civil Rights Digital Collection. They have an ENORMOUS amount of information and documents and news clips.

To further appreciate how not very long ago it was when women couldn’t vote at all, visit Women’ of Protest, a digital collection at the Library of Congress. Check out the gallery of suffrage prisoners while you’re there.

Last night after getting home from trick or treating with the kids, my husband and I went through their candy. To get the good stuff, sort through the razor bladed apples and whatnot-anyway, so we find some hate literature (I probably shouldn’t link to them because, dear god, it was offensive stuff) mixed in with a bag of fun size candy bars. Let me just say, I’m really glad my kids can’t read or recognize religious caricatures. Fast forward a few hours and I’m looking for comic book/action figure digital collections and I find this. It’s a collection of issues of a Catholic comic book written between 1946-1972. It’s really interesting and much of it (disclaimer: I did NOT look at all of them because there are A LOT) isn’t even religious at all. And what religion I did see didn’t seem to be advocating hate. Take this one about Abraham Lincoln and the importance of taking care of library books (good role model and good lesson to learn) and this one about Ed Furgol, a man who overcame a disability to become a professional golfer in the 1950’s. I like this one a lot, too.  I’d like to find more comic book collections; they’re like an easy to read e-books.

**Now, I realize that I already did a YouTube post a few weeks ago so forgive me.**

While searching for complementing collections for my collection proposal I came across some campaign ads on YouTube that I had to share. This video is a campaign song for Kennedy’s 1960 campaign, it’s fabulous and so appropriate for this election.

Some actually did insert Obama for Kennedy but the voice they used is super creepy! Although I do love the pictures of McCain.

Here’s another campaign ad for Kennedy.

That one came from a retro video channel on YouTube. She has lots of old commercials to watch. I like this one.

The things that you can find on YouTube! Best thing ever!

View of Monett downtown-Courtesy of the Missouri State Archives.

This weekend the fam and I are heading over to Missouri to visit my family. I’m from a wee little town in Southwest Mo that noone’s ever heard of. except when they see a sign on the interstate on the way to St. Louis or Springfield. It was a fine little town to me  (not that I would ever EVER go back to live there) and I look forward to occasional visits. In honor of my trip I attempted to find Monett digitally archived. I succeeded rather quickly once I found the Missouri Digital Heritage Initiative website. It’s a Missouri history buff’s dream come true! There are many collections of documents, photos, lesson plans, maps, etc. grouped together by general topic. Some collections are linked from other sites around the state but,from what I can tell, most actually reside at the Digital Heritage site. There’s a postcard exhibit where I searched and found pictures of my little hometown. Take a look at my town; seriously, it looks the same now. Not the high school, but everything else. The picture above is Broadway which is still the main town. Unless I am looking at it from the wrong perspective. I am pretty sure that the building on the left is now a pawn shop. I used to buy paperbacks from there when I was in middle school. I had a sickness for cheap books even then.

That’s all I really have to say about Monett. Wait, I will say one more thing…I’m happy that they’re getting a new library! Granted, I don’t agree with where they are putting it (edge of town, away from present location right in middle of town. lots of people walk there, how will they now?) but it’s good they are getting a new building. I see that they are having a booksale on Friday and Saturday to benefit the new library fund. Perhaps I will go and support them. or maybe I’ll just go pay off my old fines. I’m sure I have some.

Think what you may about blogging, I know people who have never read one!, but I’m all for libraries maintaining blogs or  myspace or facebook (are libraries on facebook?). Not everyone picks up fliers but many many are connected to the internet in some way. However, many many are not but this is not a discussion of the digital divide, is it? Ok, so if I think that library blogs are great, what do I think of special/digital collection blogs? Why, I think that they are a brilliant idea! Like a regular old library blog, it’s a great way for people to know what the heck is going on with their library. And unlike a regular library, I’m guessing that digital collection librarians might not put out as many fliers about what they are digitizing as non-digital librarians would for what *voter registration*/book sales/heritage festivals they are putting on that month. ***By the way, tomorrow is the last day in Oklahoma to make sure you are registered to vote or change your registration. more information here.*** Here is an example of a digital collection blog at the Birmingham Public Library. great idea. as long as people are reading. The Digital Collections blog isn’t linked on the library’s main page (although the library blog is) but is on their Virtual Library page as well as the Digital Collections page. It’s findable and useful (if people subscribe).

Just ideas for the future. my future. not the future of libraries. I can’t even begin to imagine that. although I hope the future = chik-fil-a in the lobby. kidding.