Learn with your ears

A panel discussion on several examples of community reads programs, which are growing in popularity.Meg Shriver Appleton PL on organizingThere were some key choices for the Fox Cities Community Readthis was the 3rd year of community read in Appleton, and the 2d as a multi-library effortthe most effective thing was partnering w/other libraries, bookstores & community groupsselected a title in partnership with other libraries and organizationsbrought in the author to speak as the culminatinghave used the community read to focus on an issueAPL buys hundreds of copies, using foundation fundsDo:form partnershipsMultiple libraries(Appleton, Neenah, Menasha, Kimberly-Little Chute, Kaukauna, UW-Fox) - allows choice of venues, cross-over by patrons - provides greater pool of funds from librariesBookstores are good synergy for PR & sales, and can sometimes provide more economical access to author toursBusinesses offer other partnership possibilities, such as catering for author reception, bus promotionselect a title using wide representation to get community investment - last year the library partnered with newspaper, schools and bookstores to have a community vote on title — this requires a lot of staff involvement to provide coordination, but it was popular and will likely do againtake opportunity to discuss common issues –in 2008 Alice Hoffman was part of a larger book festival, creating lots of excitement, more partnerships and coss marketing opportunitiesin 2007 Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich was foundation of Project Promise in partnership with community nonprofits and the mediain 2005 Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson became foundation of community discussion about teen sexual assault, including a partnership with lots of schools, churches, community groupsselect book that allows for an author visit: it creates a pinnacle of the process, gives people the chance to discuss with the authoruse the ALA publication on planning a community …

Cory Doctorow (or his publisher) has made parts of his new novel Little brother available as audio — DRM-free mind you. From BoingBoing:
“The audiobook comes with my own sampling license: once you own it, you’re free to take up to 30 minutes’ worth of material from it and remix and then redistribute it as much as you like, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis, make sure that it’s clear that this is a remix and not the original, and make sure that you tell people where to find the original. This is in addition to all the fair use remixing that you’re allowed to do without my permission (of course!).”
There is also an embeddable widget which lets you port the audio sample into your own blog. (Source: LISNews.org)

The CARL is hosting a brownbag session in the Library Learning Center today from 1230 - 1330 on how to Connect, download and listen to Overdrive Audio Books.

Using your CARL library card you can now have access to over 700 downloadable digital audio books via the Kansas State Library’s Overdrive website. We’ve added available titles to our online catalog so you can discover these great titles while searching our resources as well.
You can get a quick sense of what’s available to you by selecting the link below and browsing thru the titles.
Overdrive audio titles
Overdrive Audio Books Start Guide (Source: CARL Book Beacon)

Who says a book- or author-oriented site is enough for good visibility on Google and other search engines? Suppose, at no cost, you could also get your book listed in a search engine that’s used not only by other small fry but also by some majors such as Random House.
You might check out Bookhitch, which is offering the basic service for free and charging $20 for a premium version showing your book cover.
For readers, Bookhitch might also be a place to browse for titles not easily discovered elsewhere—in areas ranging from kids’ books to military ones. I haven’t read The Splendid Five: A True Story about the Splinter Fleet during World War II, one of the listings in the latter category, but Wesley Hall’s book intrigued the editor of Kilroy Was Here, along with others.
Started in May 2006, Bookhitch includes 3,000 publishers and authors, with close to 100,000 books listed (I don’t know how many would be E).
“We get an average of 25,000 visitors to Bookhitch a month, with over 1.2 million hits to the site in 2007,” says the site’s marketing director, Emma Ward.
Bookhitch is also into other activities, including a forthcoming community-written book, the use of RFID tags and QR codes (in this case, ways for bar codes to include meta data, related URLs and other details about books). Also check out the site’s newsletter, including interviews with an iRex staffer and the also one with the founder of National Novel Writing Month.
Ahead I’ll reproduce info Emma provided.
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About bookhitch
· Launched in May 2006
· 3,000 publishers and authors listed close to 100,000 books
· We help connect authors, publishers and readers · bookhitch is unique in that publishers and authors control content of listings. They can manage all of the information that appears on bookhitch and where they want to direct readers. …

Harlequin is sticking to DRM for now—probably to the dismay of more than a few readers. But the company is also doing many things right, and in an interview with Fast Company, Brent Lewis, Harlequin’s director of Internet and digital, talks about projects ranging from cellphone e-books (thumbs-up from the TeleBlog!) to podcasts, audiobooks and even a Paranormal Romance Blog.
Now if Harlequin can only keep an open mind about Social DRM and try it out for real. Among the majors, isn’t Harlequin somewhat of a Google of e-books—with so many projects in beta? So why not experiment with Social DRM, especially given Harlequin’s community oriented approach. What a great way for Harlequin to show it has faith in its customers and, unlike some, believes in their owning their purchases for real. How about it, Brent?
Technorati Tags: Harlequin,Brent Lewis (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home)

Handy! The Maine State Library has announced a new mobile-accessible library, now available at mobile.maine.gov/msl. Unlike some mobile sites, you can also access this one with a regular Web browser.
From the main menu of the Maine State Library mobile site you can quickly get to contact information for the library, FAQs, new audio book [...] (Source: ResearchBuzz)

I  don’t know, but I suspect that a lot of our readers are Star Wars fans. Well, I just received the following in an email from Random House PR:
“As a special gift to STAR WARS fans, Del Rey will be offering Book One in the series, STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: BETRAYAL, as a free downloadable PDF, audio book, and eBook. This promotional offer will run for two weeks, from 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, April 29, until midnight on Tuesday, May 13. The free download, which can be shared, e-mailed or printed, will be available on www.legacyoftheforce.com. …
Del Rey has partnered with booksellers to provide the free download. A1Books.com, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Booksense.com, Borders.com, Deepdiscount.com, the eBook Store from Sony, Overstock.com, and Powells.com are making the file available to their customers.
“This giveaway is a great way to introduce the legions of Star Wars fans to our books,” commented Christine Cabello, Deputy Director of Marketing at the Random House Publishing Group, who oversaw the execution of this initiative. “We also expect that it will build awareness and excitement for the on-sale date of the final book in the series, INVINCIBLE.”
Del Rey will be supporting the free download with a major online marketing campaign including an announcement in the STAR WARS e-newsletter, promotion on StarWars.com, and banner advertising.”
It certainly seems that ebooks are becoming recognized as a promotional tool.  TOR has been regularly giving ebooks away.  Let’s hope the trend continues.
Good reading (or listening)! (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home)

Reverting possible vandalism by 71.192.197.34 to version by Ohnoitsjamie. False positive? Report it. Thanks, User:ClueBot. (343737) (Bot)

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A ”’librarian”’ is an information professional trained in [[library and information science]], which is, simply stated, the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs. Typically, librarians work in a public or college [[library]], an elementary- or secondary-school media center, a [[library]] within a company, or another information-provision agency. Some librarians are independent entrepreneurs working as information specialists, catalogers, indexers and other professional, specialized capacities. Librarians may be categorized as a public, school, correctional, special, independent or academic librarian.

A ”’librarian”’ is an information professional trained in [[library and information science]], which is, simply stated, the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs. Typically, librarians work in a public or college [[library]], an elementary- or secondary-school media center, a [[library]] within a company, or another information-provision agency. Some librarians are independent entrepreneurs working as information specialists, catalogers, indexers and other professional, specialized capacities. Librarians may be categorized as a public, school, correctional, special, independent or academic librarian.

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The term librarian is used often and incorrectly to refer to anyone who works in a library. Para-professional or clerical staff working in a library are more properly referred to as library clerks, library assistant, or some equivalent title. …

← Previous revision
Revision as of 17:10, 28 April 2008

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A ”’librarian”’ is an information professional trained in [[library and information science]], which is, simply stated, the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs. Typically, librarians work in a public or college [[library]], an elementary- or secondary-school media center, a [[library]] within a company, or another information-provision agency. Some librarians are independent entrepreneurs working as information specialists, catalogers, indexers and other professional, specialized capacities. Librarians may be categorized as a public, school, correctional, special, independent or academic librarian.

A ”’librarian”’ is an information professional trained in [[library and information science]], which is, simply stated, the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs. Typically, librarians work in a public or college [[library]], an elementary- or secondary-school media center, a [[library]] within a company, or another information-provision agency. Some librarians are independent entrepreneurs working as information specialists, catalogers, indexers and other professional, specialized capacities. Librarians may be categorized as a public, school, correctional, special, independent or academic librarian.

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The term librarian is used often and incorrectly to refer to anyone who works in a library. Para-professional or clerical staff working in a library are more properly referred to as library clerks, library assistant, or some equivalent title. Professional Librarians (in the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere) have achieved a Master of Science or of Arts degree requiring some 30 to 46 semester hours from an accredited school of library and/or information science within a college or university. …

“Last month, I read about a new e-book program for kids called Kidthing.com. Kidthing is based on Adobe flash and is one part audio book and one part video. It really harnesses the ability of a computer to translate into a learning tool for young children.” - Jane, at DearAuthor.com.
The TeleRead take:  I can see the positives here. But also consider the very real risk of many busy parents reading less to their kids the old-fashioned way. What’s more, with all the dazzle happening, could Kidthing reduce kids’ appetite for old-fashioned text? I don’t know; I’m just broaching the question. At least Kidthing does show the text with the pictures rather than dispensing with it entirely.
Idea: Any possibility that Kindthing could let parents replace the narrator’s voice with their own, if they read the whole book in segments that the program could run with the video.
Somewhat similar thoughts from Jane: “The future will also bring personalized books where you can add a picture of your child or his or her name so that your child can be inserted, digitally, into a book. While Kidthing couldn’t share specifics, they did tell me that they have deals with movie, games, animation studios; publishers; international publishers; and record companies to provide top notch content.”
A few more details: “The software for Kidthing is free and there are a few free interactive games, coloring sheets and…Horton Hears a Who. Other books can be purchased for a reasonable price (most are around $5.00). The books or games are stored on your computer, but are not transferable due to the digital rights management scheme imposed. The goal is to allow up to 5 computers to access the same purchases and allow the purchases to be shared across a local computer network. Currently, there are Windows XP and Vista versions available with a Mac version coming soon. …