For this Thing, I read "The Future of Libraries: Interview with Thomas Frey." I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised; most of the articles I've read on the future of libraries are doom and gloom predictions that they're an endangered species. Mr. Frey, however, sees libraries as evolving, rather than becoming extinct.
I work in a library at one of the agriculture and technology colleges in the SUNY system. Assuming that our campus survives to 2020 (I think we will, but you never know), and given that we are currently under renovation (my office is being moved as I write, on my laptop, in limbo), I don't know how much our building will change in nine years. Services, to be sure, will continue to evolve.
I work in circulation and interlibrary loan. The migration to an online world has been continual; the catalog, indices, journals, and general workflow have all moved, in whole or part, to digital formats, and as ebooks proliferate, circulation adjusts.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Thing 9: eBooks
Yeah, so, we bought a house in December... and I still don't really have room for all the books. Not until I can afford to have custom shelving put in the dining room...
I'm one of those people who's not a fan of reading on screens. I'm sure I'll get there eventually; as much as I love physical books, there's only so much space, and for most of what I read, the content is not format-dependent. (In my head, I'm imagining what life would be like if I had my Betty Crocker cookbook in e-format, and an e-reader that could pull up, in parallel, the brownie recipe and the frosting recipe on the same screen...) But, I have no e-reader, and my phone is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Treo that's two years old.
My husband, on the other hand, loves electronic books and has repurposed one of my older laptops (I'm a fan of 10" or smaller laptops for portability) as an ebook reader. He reads a lot of pulp sci-fi, and he can get titles easily in a format that works on a variety of platforms. He also reads on his phone, which would drive me nuts - the screen is so small! He's getting a new Android phone in a couple months, which may or may not expand his options.
I'm one of those people who's not a fan of reading on screens. I'm sure I'll get there eventually; as much as I love physical books, there's only so much space, and for most of what I read, the content is not format-dependent. (In my head, I'm imagining what life would be like if I had my Betty Crocker cookbook in e-format, and an e-reader that could pull up, in parallel, the brownie recipe and the frosting recipe on the same screen...) But, I have no e-reader, and my phone is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Treo that's two years old.
My husband, on the other hand, loves electronic books and has repurposed one of my older laptops (I'm a fan of 10" or smaller laptops for portability) as an ebook reader. He reads a lot of pulp sci-fi, and he can get titles easily in a format that works on a variety of platforms. He also reads on his phone, which would drive me nuts - the screen is so small! He's getting a new Android phone in a couple months, which may or may not expand his options.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Thing 8: Video
This is the first Thing that I couldn't do everything I wanted to on my work computer; the Microsoft Live Movie Maker requires Vista or later, and my work computer is still on XP. My home desktop and my laptop are both on Windows 7, though, so I still had options.
Once the rain finally let up a bit, I was able to take my camera and wander around my back yard. Uploading from my camera is pretty easy; it has a USB cable, and Windows will pop up an import wizard for it.
Movie Maker was easy to use for basic functions - I didn't dig into the sub menus much since it was my first time using it. Browse for a video file, add the music file, add some words. I minimized the movie sound so that hopefully all you hear is the music. (It's hard to tell here since my husband has music playing in the room.)
Once the rain finally let up a bit, I was able to take my camera and wander around my back yard. Uploading from my camera is pretty easy; it has a USB cable, and Windows will pop up an import wizard for it.
Movie Maker was easy to use for basic functions - I didn't dig into the sub menus much since it was my first time using it. Browse for a video file, add the music file, add some words. I minimized the movie sound so that hopefully all you hear is the music. (It's hard to tell here since my husband has music playing in the room.)
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