Day archives: March 2nd, 2014

Costco stores as role models for Internet-era public libraries (caveats ahead)

David Rothman cautions that the rage is to compare everything in creation to a business. But he urges us to be careful when doing so with America’s public libraries. They are civic and service institutions, not profit-making corporations. A major caveat! Public libraries need to serve everyone, especially the poor, a distinct and resonate differentiation with the market paradigm. Still, in in a library context, Rothman was intrigued when President Obama once again singled out Costco for its success. There are lessons to be learned here.

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Subjects: Features, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

Does a Blended Learning, Flipped Classroom Pedagogy Help Information Literacy Students in the Long Term Adoption of Research Skills?

Rich McCue discusses and documents how Research of Information Literacy and Blended Learning (BL) is in an early stage with the current body of knowledge consisting of case studies and small action based research projects. BL offers the promise of higher scores on summative assessments and lower requirements for physical space and instructor time if implemented using best practices. Some BL best practices include a significant investment of time and effort in course redesign, and close collaboration between library and faculty instructors during the redesign.

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Subjects: Features, Technology Trends

$38 Datawind UbiSlate 7Ci tablet as an e-reader: Avoid this adware trap despite its many positives!

David Rothman is spearheading chronicling the progress of expanding low cost access to e-readers as libraries engage in mission critical outreach efforts to reach underserved communities. In this article, Rothman asks: Suppose you could buy an iPad for $38, read OverDrive library books, even hear text to speech from them, and enjoy Kindle books, too. And how about social media, photos, basic video chat, and production of low-res videos? What if you could even use voice recognition to dictate e-mail or other documents for work or school? Programs to loan out low-cost e-readers are on the horizon, but David cautions there are indeed impediments, including operating system security and lack of now ubiquitous high-end audio/video performance.

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Subjects: E-Books, Features, Gadgets, Library Software & Technology, Product Reviews, Software
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