What I Learned Today... » Books

Book Review: Zotero by Jason Puckett

Nicole — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:03:11 +0000

Ages ago I got a copy of Zotero: a guide for librarians, researchers and educators by Jason Puckett with the intention of reading it and reviewing it. Soon after I was hit with medical problem after medical problem and even though I read it cover to cover in practically no time at all, the book has been left un-reviewed. So here we go!

I am a huge Zotero fan, in fact I learned of Zotero from Jason Puckett’s amazing research guide on the topic. I thought I had learned all there was to know, until I read this book.

I guess I should start (for those of you who don’t know) with an explanation of what Zotero is and why you’d want to use it. The official website defines Zotero as “an easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.” I call Zotero a bibliography tool, but really it’s much more. I use Zotero to save information on articles, news, blog posts and books that I find on a daily basis, I use it to keep the bibliographies for my books and articles so that I can easily access then while I finish writing.

Jason does an awesome job of explaining how to perform both basic and advanced functions using Zotero. His book is geared not only to librarians, but to anyone doing research, to anyone who might benefit from a research assistant in their browser. The book is organized so that How Tos take up the first 5 chapters and then the last two cover how to teach Zotero to your patrons, students, friends, etc and how to support Zotero in your institution.

This handy guide is a must have for anyone who does research or writes for publication. This guide, for that matter, is for anyone who is tired of using proprietary tools to manage their bibliography and would like a bit more control and a lot more friendly functionality.

I’m sorry it took me so long to share this review with you all, but I hope that you’ll still run out and read a copy of Jason’s book because it’s well worth it!

Information Today Inc. Book Sale

Nicole — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:26:10 +0000

Information Today, Inc. is offering a one-time discount to all of our customers, friends, and family. From now through Monday, January 16, 2012, receive 40% off all book purchases made through the Information Today, Inc. website. The discount is good on an unlimited number of orders placed during the sale period—and with more than 150 titles available on our website, there’s something for everyone.

To get the discount, use the promo code ITIHOLIDAY at the check out on our online store.

Donate A Book Day in April

Nicole — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:54:32 +0000

Later this month the first Donate-A-Book day will take place at libraries around the country.

On April 14, readers across the U.S. will be encouraged to donate new or gently used books to their local libraries. Books will be added to the library’s collections, with remaining books given to the Friends of the Library, for use at their annual booksale fundraisers.

For more info please read the press release and get those books ready for donation (I know I have a few I’ve been waiting to get over to the library … now I have an excuse )

Technology Grant Success Stories Needed

Nicole — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:00:26 +0000

I received this via email and figured that some of my readers might be interested.

Pam MacKellar is looking for technology grant success stories to include in her new book: Writing Successful Technology Grant Proposals: A LITA Guide.

If you have been successful at winning a grant for a library project of any kind that utilizes technology, she’d love to hear from you! Just go to www.pamelamackellar.com/techgrants and complete the form by April 30, 2011. One lucky person who submits a success story will win a copy of the new book.

Questions: Contact Pam at pmackellar182@gmail.com

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Nicole — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:02:23 +0000

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Every eBook user should have the following rights:

the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.

These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it ( #ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work

101 Free Tech Books

Nicole — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:53:57 +0000

A couple of months ago I wrote about 101 Free Tech Books for you all. This month I want to remind you that this site is a must for anyone interested in technology or getting free books! Because of my previous post I just won five free tech books! This will bring my count of free books to 7 since signing up in the fall (and have seen my librarian friends get free books too). For all of the librarians reading this, sign up and try to get some updated books for your collections!!

Nook Color Review

Nicole — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:21:38 +0000

This Christmas I got a Nook Color from my hubby and mother. I’ve been using it for a few days and I think it’s time to share my opinions.

First things first, if you have an ebook reader you must download Calibre. Calibre is an open source ebook management application that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux (a flavor for everyone). It’s a great way to convert files from one format to another, to manage all of your books and to download news from the web to your reader.

I have started with a bunch of free and public domain materials (nothing purchased yet). I chose the Nook over other alternatives because it could open so many formats of ebook and it runs on the Android operating system so that gives me some options for openness should I decide to root the device (a practice that has recently been declared legal). However I have found some downsides to the supposed openness of the Nook. While I can read materials purchased or downloaded from other sites, these materials are treated like second class citizens on the Nook. What do I mean? Well my EPubs and PDFs can’t be mounted on the home screen. I can only access these materials by browsing my shelves or files. I also can’t use the built in social networking functionality on materials that are not from Barnes & Noble. Basically I can read these materials, but they’re harder to get to and not as functional.

I’m reading The Art of Community right now and have just figured out how to highlight passages (a big plus). I can also access all of my highlights and notes in one menu. Now for the minus – I can’t find a way to download or share these quotes. If this were a Barnes and Noble publication I could share the quotes one by one with the ‘share’ function, but because this is a PDF (converted to Epub in Calibre) I can just highlight and that’s the end of it. This seems like a huge oversight on the part of Barnes and Noble (or maybe just an anti-feature put in place to make me want to root the darn thing).

Regarding reading on the device, I like it! It’s not E Ink and some people might be turned off by that, but I altered the brightness, font, and background color so that it’s not too harsh on my eyes. I like how each it is to turn the pages and find your bookmarks or highlighted passages. A neat feature we found last night was the ability to search a dictionary for a highlighted word. I can also search for it in Google or Wikipedia (if connected to the wifi).

My overall review is that I’m happy I have the Nook Color and as each day goes by I get closer and closer to wanting to root it so that I can have a truly open system (like I thought I was getting). If you happen to have more knowledge than me please comment here so that I can learn even more about my Nook.

Add Free Ebooks to your Catalog

Nicole — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:53:42 +0000

This came across a few lists I’m on today and I thought it would be beneficial to some of you. Using the file that some Colorado Libraries have created you can import a batch of freely available ebook classics to your system. More info here:

The Colorado Library Consortium created a project to clean up the most popular MARC records from Project Gutenberg called eDiscover the Classics. We identified the top 500 or so downloads and cleaned up those records and made them available to other libraries. We launched the website a few weeks at: http://www.clicweb.org/e-discover-home

Since that time the records have been further enhancements by Douglas County Libraries and University of Denver. If you have already downloaded the MARC records we encourage you to get the new set of records and reload them into your catalog. Here is a link explaining our clean-up efforts: http://www.clicweb.org/e_discover/history%20of%20record%20enhancement%20.pdf

Please consider these MARC records a gift to the library community! The more patrons think of libraries as a source for content for their Kindles, Nooks, IPads, MP3 players, etc – the better!

Valerie Horton

Get yourself some free tech books

Nicole — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:29:10 +0000

Tech books are expensive! A few months ago I signed up for 101FreeTechBooks.com to try and offset some of that cost. It only took me a month before I won my first tech book!! Basically, you sign up, put some books on your wish list and then if you win you get one of the books shipped to your for free. You really can’t beat it. So, just a quick tip for all you techies and librarians who want to learn to be techies Sign up at 101FeeTechBooks.com – you’ve got nothing to lose and lots of awesome books to gain.

Do I need an ebook reader?

Nicole — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:23:42 +0000

There seem to be two schools of thought on the ebook reader front. The first is “I love my books I don’t need a computer to read them” and the other is “Woo Hoo! How did I live without this?”

I am in limbo between the two and so I figured I’d go through the back and forth I keep hearing in my head and let my trusted colleagues push me one way or the other.

First, I am in love with my books – the fact that my boxes of books took up like half of our moving truck is a testament to that. On the other hand I’m a total techie and love gadgets. I can see the practical uses for an ebook reader when it comes to non fiction titles, but do I really need it for my fiction titles? Then I think, do I want an ebook reader or a tablet (aka iPad or Android tablet). I know that the ebook reader has the eInk and is readable in all kinds of light, and the tablet isn’t, but the tablet can do a lot more for me than just let me read books. There’s also the fact that I travel all of the time and have to decide what books to bring based on how much they weigh instead of what I really want to read.

As you can see I’m a bit scattered in my thoughts on this and I’d love to hear what you all think of the devices you have – or don’t have!

Technorati Tags: ipad, kindle, nook, ebook

You must earn your place in communities

Nicole — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:15:30 +0000

I’m reading ‘Trust Agents‘ by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith right now and I have to say I’m learning a lot! One part that I feel bears repeating here (that I didn’t learn from the book – but from real life) is about joining communities – the right way.

I think the following quote from the book applies to many of the things I teach librarians (social networking, web 2.0 and of course open source), and while it focuses on business, it applies very much to us as well.

Simply too many companies attempt to jump into the fray on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and immediately endeavor to peddle their wares. They don’t realize that we all know each other, that we recognize the new stranger in our midst and that we are feeling “marketed to” long before we’ve been properly introduced. ¹

As I stated before, even though this mentions specific networks, it applies just as equally to open source networks/communities.

Earlier in the book, Chris and Julien talk about how companies (and libraries) can screw up when joining or participating in an existing community – and how to fix it!

In most cases, the way to fix misunderstandings and earn back respect requires asserting the appropriate combination of deference, respect, and humility. If you are genuine in your efforts, the next step after realizing that the community has pushed back is to apologize. Even if you feel you’re in the right, stat by saying, “I’m sorry.” Next, be humble and learn what the community is teaching … The most important element is a consistent stream of communication back to the “wronged” individuals in the community. ²

And to that I’d add a quote from Wikinomics by Dan Tascott and Anthony Williams:

Critiquing the community is a right reserved for those who have proved themselves by making valuable contributions.^3.

As library professionals we often stick to reading/studying things specifically geared to us, but I find it often helpful to branch out and read books that have been categorized as ‘business’ books because we can learn just as much from them. As I finish reading ‘Trust Agents’ I may have more to share with you all.

——
^1. Brogan, Chris, and Julien Smith. “You must earn your place in communities.” In Trust Agents, 106-108. Rev Upd. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2010. http://trustagent.com.
^2.———. “How to screw up (and how to fix it).” In Trust Agents, 100-101. Rev Upd. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2010. http://trustagent.com.
^3. Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Embracing open source culture and strategy.” In Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, 82-83. Expanded Edition. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2008. www.wikinomics.com/book/.

Crowdsourcing and open source

Practical Open Source Software for Libraries

Nicole — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:40:37 +0000

I am happy to announce that Practical Open Source Software for Libraries, my second book, has been published and is available for purchase in the US from Neal-Schuman Publishers and in the rest of the world from Chandos Publishing.

If you happen to write a review online please send me the link and I’ll add it to the official book site. I want to yet again thank Chris Cormack for his inspiration and all the time he took over the years to help teach and mentor me! Without him this book would have been written by someone else.

Deals & Freebies

Nicole — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:18:52 +0000

Yesterday I was stumbling around the web and came across a site I hadn’t heard of before called 101 Free Tech Books. They have a raffle once a month and give away print tech books (not e-books) to the winners. If you’ve bought a book on programming or computers lately you know that these books can add up in cost pretty quickly. I haven’t won anything yet, so I don’t know how easy it is to snag one of these books, but it seems like a pretty awesome idea and worth giving it a try to get free books!

This second site isn’t so much technology related, but I have recently become a fan of a pretty cool deal site called Groupon and thought that some of you might find it interesting. Basically you sign up to get deals in your area, called Groupons (like coupons for a group) and if enough people promise to buy the Groupon the deal is on. I recently got a Groupon for $110 worth of photobooks for only $25 (a technology-ish type deal).

Finally and most awesome – if you want to learn more about finding deals and saving money you should checkout my friend Rachel and her awesome Mashup Mom site & her newest book Point, Click, and Save.

Patron’s Book Browsing Habits

Nicole — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:04:07 +0000

I got this email from a cousin of mine and I really wanted to share it with you all and see what you’ve experienced.

Just got back from the library choosing a couple of “relaxing” books. As I browsed, I had these thoughts and then decided I’d send them to the family librarian .

Has anyone ever done a study about how people choose a book to check out? If one goes to the library with no particular book or author in mind, is she influenced by the appearance of the book—pictures on the spine, looks new/old, likes the pictures on the cover? And what about those books that have part of the title or the author’s name covered by the shelving sticker? (Don’t know what you really call that sticker, but you know the one–author, call number where applicable, etc.)

Do people pull the book off the shelf to see the rest of the words on the cover? Then there are the books on the top shelf above your head and on the bottom shelf down by the floor. Are they checked out as much as the ones on the middle shelves that can be viewed easily? Would you rather have a book that has something about the story on the back cover or one that doesn’t give you a hint?

I know I have a tendency to choose newer-looking books with pleasant covers. I’d only pull the book off the shelf if the words I could see on the spine sounded interesting. I’d rarely choose a book on the top shelf because I’d have to go hunt up a step stool. Sometimes I get one off the bottom shelf if I can see the title without having to get down on the floor. (At my age, I might have to just STAY on the floor!) And I like that info on the back–just in case it’s about something I don’t want to read about. I

know–I have too much time on my hands! I should use it to think about world problems or something. Ha! If I wrote a book, I’d want it to have a pretty cover and be on a middle shelf–preferably in the Large Print section so I could see the words!

I thought this was great. I didn’t go looking for any particular research on the topic because I was out of town and just got home, but I love starting with my fellow librarians anyway! What do you all think? What have you seen patrons doing? What do you do?

I personally will get on the floor (and sit down there for as long as it takes) if the shelve of books on the topic I want is down there. I don’t pay any attention to spine labels – except to find the location of a specific book. When it comes to fiction I too look for pretty or new covers – but if the book doesn’t have a summary – as so many new books seem to be missing – I won’t borrow or buy the book … I need to know what the darn thing is about – not what some other author thought of the book.

Library Mashups Book

Nicole — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:16:13 +0000

If you missed my many other announcements, I just wanted to let you know that Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data has arrived on my doorstep and is probably heading out to those of you who pre-ordered a copy soon!! If you write a review, let me know so I can read it and link to it

Open development and the art of community

Nicole — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:57:51 +0000

The first chapter of The Art of Community by Jono Bacon has been released for early review. It’s a pretty interesting chapter and I may just have to add the full book to my wishlist.

I soooo need one of these

Nicole — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:32:59 +0000

Normally I don’t advertise products I’m emailed about – but I have to write about this nifty gadget because I could have sooooo used it last night when I was doing my research. The BookMarker is a pen, postit holder, bookmark and book strap!!

Never lose your place again, and never lose your bookmark! BookMarker™ is super thin, so it fits easily in your book to mark your page WITHOUT breaking your book binding. The design includes a nifty strap that wraps around your book to keep the BookMarker™ in place and keep your book closed… how cool is that?!

I just need it to be a highlighter too and I’m all set. Learn more here.

Librarians as Writers

Nicole — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:08:11 +0000

I contributed to an upcoming book on writing for librarians entitled Writing and Publishing: The Librarian’s Handbook and that book was just featured in American Libraries – complete with a blurb from me (with one great big typo – how did I miss that???) Check it out:

Librarians as Writers (contributor)
American Libraries, vol. 40, iss. 6/7, June/July 2009, p.54.

[update] I just checked what I originally submitted because I couldn’t imagine making that kind of mistake – and it turns out that the editors are the ones who messed up what I wrote – originally it said “For me a successful professional writer is one who can make an impact on at least one colleague with their words.” – oh well [/update]

Espresso Book Machine

Nicole — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:04:48 +0000

A lot of librarians have been posting a link to this article on the Espresso Book Machine launch in London.

It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass production of books possible. Launching today at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait.

This is a great invention that we’ll probably see in book stores all over soon enough. Basically if a book is out of print you can still get a print version using the Espresso Book Machine! What I’d love to see (and probably never will- cause of copyright) is a book scanner at my local library or bookstore that I can use to make digital copies of books – in particular to make a digital copy of the genealogy book that my in-laws have loaned me with the history of their family!!

BookSwim – Netflix for Books…

Nicole — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:56:18 +0000

I just learned about a new service – BookSwim – that is pretty much Netflix for books (although a bit more expensive to use).

BookSwim is the first online book rental library service lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and now college textbooks Netflix®-style directly to your house, without the need to purchase!

I guess I can see how this would be useful for those who don’t live near a library – but why the heck would I want to pay nearly $20 a month to rent books? I can go to the library and rent books for free.

BookSwim does address the “Why not just go to a library?” question – but not to my satisfaction:

Late fees (never with BookSwim)

Limited hours (browse BookSwim in your pajamas at 3am if you’d like)
Limited selections (can’t find a book on BookSwim.com? Let us know and we’ll buy it!)
Long waiting lists for popular titles (we buy plenty of copies to slash your wait time)
Location, location, location (what could be closer than your own home?)

* That said, BookSwim is a terrific suppliment for avid library users, as BookSwim encourages members to use the library if/when possible.

Okay, first, I have never accrued $20 in late fees during one month — but maybe I’m just an unusual library patron. Second, I can browse my library’s online catalog at 3am in my PJs if I want to. Third, most libraries offer the option to allow patrons to make purchase suggestions – or get titles via inter-library loan. Fourth, okay – this one I agree with – but for $20 I can go out and buy that popular title this month. Fifth, it is nice to have the books delivered to my door – which is why I used to use my library’s mail order service when I was a kid

Now, I’m not completely negative about this! The one great thing about this might be the textbooks. For the price it might actually be cheaper to keep a textbook for the term from BookSwim than it would be to buy the textbook – and you would never be able to keep the book from the library that long. If you ask me – this is the audience (college students) that BookSwim should focus on.

Library Mashups Book on Facebook

Nicole — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:15:44 +0000

Today I published my Library Mashups book fan page on Facebook. Check it out and become a fan I will keep everyone posted on when the book will be published via that page and the official book website.

Kindle 2 Added to Wishlist

Nicole — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:48:42 +0000

I have been waiting for this for way too long The Kindle 2 is released and ready to be added to my wishlist.

Now I just have to find a way to purchase one. Check out Amazon.com to see the announcement and pictures and such.

Reading Radar

Nicole — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:17:54 +0000

I wrote about the New York Times APIs a while ago, but today I found a new mashup using Amazon and the NY Times Bestseller Lists – Reading Radar.

Last week we reported on the release of another API by The New York Times: the Times Bestseller’s API. Well it didn’t take long for the API to make its way into a neat book recommendation engine called Reading Radar.

I think it’s a great example of how APIs lend to great new displays of data.

Found via ProgrammableWeb.

Pricey Booklover Gift

Nicole — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:54:37 +0000

If you’re still looking for the perfect gift for the book lover in your life (and you have $80) this might be an options for you.

Even with a heavy duty air purifier and regular vacuuming around the apartment, our book collection can be a pain to clean, gathering dust like a Katamari dustball. The books at the top of our bookshelves are especially hard to dust; we have to hold up the canister vac while standing on a step ladder to reach the top tomes. Using one of these book brushes might make clean up a little easier for those of us with a decent book collection…

Via CrunchGear and Apartment Therapy.

LibraryThing: Libraries of Early America

Nicole — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:34:43 +0000

As someone who worked as a cataloger for special collections – and cataloged the entire library of an important figure in the college’s history – this new project from LibraryThing sounds pretty darn awesome!!

Have you ever wondered what books Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had in their personal libraries? How about 18th-century Virginia musician Cuthbert Ogle, or four generations of Mather family members? Or the most active female book collector in Virginia during the colonial/early national period, Lady Jean Skipwith?

A new project will make it possible to search, compare and study these and other Libraries of Early America. Using the book-cataloging website LibraryThing.com, scholars from institutions around the country (including Monticello, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society and others) have begun the process of creating digital catalogs of early American book collections – the project covers anyone who lived in America and collected primarily before 1825.

Make sure to share this announcement with your special collections catalogers! This sounds like an awesome project and I wish I was still cataloging so I could participate (well … only a little)

Technorati Tags: librarything