I just announced that I was published in a book – now I get to announce that I will be editing my own book!! Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data will be a compilation of chapters about library mashups!! This is going to be a very exciting project with a bunch of great info in it!! Keep an eye out for it! It will be published by Information Today early next year.
More info to come as I actually work on it 
My first book contribution has been printed!! I wrote 2 chapters for Thinking Outside the Book: Essays for Innovative Librarians.
Description
Professionals in all areas of librarianship will find inspiration in the essays collected here—each of them innovative tips for increasing circulation, enhancing collections, and improving flexibility. With extensive experience in the nation’s top libraries and media centers, the 73 contributors describe what really works based on their real-world experiencesOrganized by subject, the essays offer succinct and practical guidelines for dozens of tasks. Topics include preparing and delivering distinctive presentations; forming a successful grant proposal; hosting a traveling multimedia exhibition; organizing effective community partnerships; writing blogs; hosting authors; creating cybertorials; preserving local culture—and many others.
My chapters are:
I haven’t gotten my copy yet, but I’ll write a review once I do.
There is a discussion going on on the NGC4Lib List about using Google Books content in our OPACs. Today I read Tim’s post talking about the new Google terms of service for their Books API.
After some delay, Google has now posted–for the first time–a “Terms of Use” for the Google Book Search API (http://code.google.com/apis/books/terms.html). If you’re planning to use GBS data, you should be sure to read it.
The back story is an interesting one. Soon after I wrote and spoke about the covers opportunity, a major cover supplier contacted me. They were miffed at me, and at Google. Apparently a large percentage of the Google covers were, in fact, licensed to Google by them. They never intended this to be a “back door” to their covers, undermining their core business. It was up to Google to protect their content appropriately, something they did not do. For starters, the GBS API appears to have gone live without any Terms of Service beyond the site-wide ones. The new Terms of Service is, I gather, the fruit of this situation.
It’s always too good to be true! I guess I should read the terms through.
I mentioned that the new Borders.com Beta site was available back in January, but the new Borders.com site wasn’t ready until now! If you’re interested in searching Borders online apart from Amazon (which is where Borders has been for years), then give their new site a look.
I certainly like the new homepage and the shelf browsing feel it offers … very Borders-like
Tim Spalding has a great post over at Thingology about self publishing sites (specifically LuLu):
Getting Real is an important book. It came along at exactly the right time, said something important. To the extent the greap web-app “explosion” of 2004-2007 had a book, this was it.
And it was successful. According to 37Signals the (paid) version has sold has 30,000 copies. It’s the number six seller on Lulu.com. Passionate, unpaid fans have produced translations into thirteen languages. Google records 166,000 mentions. Even on LibraryThing, where the book had to be manually entered and there is a bias toward the printed version, 37 members have listed it.
Did libraries notice? Not at all.
OCLC’s WorldCat records exactly three copies—MIT, California Polytechnic and the University of Nebraska. That’s three copies of one of the top tech books of the 00′s in most of the US libraries that matter. The Library of Congress? New York Public? Harvard? None of them. For comparison, WorldCat contains 619 copies of Solitary sex : a cultural history of masturbation.
Shocking!
Not only are there some great books published on sites like LuLu, but they’re usually more affordable – so libraries looking for great content for a lower cost should be paying attention.
I’d even add that libraries need to start pulling in digital resources as well. There are a ton of resources out there for free that libraries aren’t adding to their collections. Why? Either because they don’t know that they’re out there, or they just don’t have the resources or time to focus on them and their print collections.
It’s a shame 
but I do understand – I just wish there was a way to change things to get even more information to our patrons.
Tim Spalding has posted a bit of code to get free book covers for your OPAC by using Google. Godmar Back has given a different example for getting multiple covers at once. The Google Book Search API seems to have taken off with libraries & librarians!
Technorati Tags: google books, google book search api, book jackets
LibraryThing is now using the Google Book Search API and is providing users with a way to search within their books (if they’re part of Google’s collection):
The official Google Blog and the Inside Book Search Blog just announced the new Google Book Search API, with LibraryThing as one of the first implementors. (The others are libraries; I’ll be posting about what they’ve done over on Thingology.)
In sum, LibraryThing now links to Google Books for book scans—full or partial—and book information.
This is a pretty neat addition!! I’ll have to check it out in a year when I’m not so busy!
Technorati Tags: google books, google book search, librarything
Just the title makes me cringe! In this case, the word “rip” is used in the same way we use it when we refer to copying CDs:
Could the publishing industry get Napsterized? That was my first thought when I saw the marketing materials for the Atiz BookSnap, the first consumer device that enables you to “release the content” of your books by transforming the printed words on the page into digital files that can be read on computers and handheld e-readers. “It’s not a scanner,” proclaims a banner on the Atiz Web site. “It’s a book ripper.” Though ripping (which means transferring content from an external medium to your computer) does not necessary imply an act of piracy, I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was a sign of impending apocalypse on Publishers’ Row, a scenario that could end up with people file-sharing John Grisham’s latest they way they do now with the newest Vampire Weekend tunes.
Steven Levy writes about how this machine is still way too cumbersome and pricey for the average book owner, but worries that its existence is a sign of what’s to come.
While I’d love to be able to digitally search my book collection … I think I’ll wait for the API that merges data from LibraryThing (which has my entire collection cataloged) and the Open Library (which aims to have scans of every book).
When did this happen? I feel like I’m missing out on so much! I was adding a couple of new books to LibraryThing this morning and saw “status” so I said “what is that?” and clicked it. It’s a way to keep track of which books you’ve read and haven’t read! Finally – no more tagging books with “read” and “notread”!
Technorati Tags: librarything
I followed a link from Kimbooktu regarding a new way to store my books and found this post about the amazing staircase.
The flat occupies part of the shared top floor of an existing Victorian mansion block. Our proposal extended the flat into the unused loft space above, creating a new bedroom level and increasing the floor area of the flat by approximately one third. We created a ‘secret’ staircase, hidden from the main reception room, to access a new loft bedroom lit by roof lights. Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client’s desire for a library to form a ‘library staircase’ in which English oak stair treads and shelves are both completely lined with books. With a skylight above lighting the staircase, it becomes the perfect place to stop and browse a tome. The stair structure was designed as an upside down ‘sedan chair’ structure (with Rodrigues Associates, Structural Engineers, London) that carries the whole weight of the stair and books back to the main structural walls of the building. It dangles from the upper floor thereby avoiding any complicated neighbour issues with the floors below.
Now I have to move again! I need a 2 story house so I can do this!!!
