Microhoo!!?

Microsoft and Yahoo combine to give Google a run for its money.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/technology/microsoft_yahoo_google_search/index.htm?postversion=2009072912 and http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/technology/microsoft_yahoo/index.htm?postversion=2009072911

Student Display Names by Karl Fisch

Karl Fisch blogs on 21st century learning skills and works with high school students and teachers in Littleton, CO. Like many media specialists and educational technologists, he and his school have required students to hide behind user names that do not reveal identity for safety purposes. He came to question that policy when it occurred to him that a student's online work is really part of a digital resume or portfolio that would be built up over time. If students do not use their real names, they will essentially lose the work they have done. Why are we asking students to hide their work with vague display names if we are also asking them to develop a positive digital footprint and a robust collection of work for their online resume? http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2009/06/student-display-names-i-was-wrong.html

Google Book Search Settlement

The Google Book Search lawsuit has apparently been settled. See http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/ Implications for libraries? See Google's version:

• "We'll...be offering libraries, universities and other organizations the ability to purchase institutional subscriptions, which will give users access to the complete text of millions of titles while compensating authors and publishers for the service. Students and researchers will have access to an electronic library that combines the collections from many of the top universities across the country. Public and university libraries in the U.S. will also be able to offer terminals where readers can access the full text of millions of out-of-print books for free."

My question: cost of the subscription for my library? Access to the collection...will it really be limited to a "terminal" in the library? What about e-book readers like the Kindle or home access? How can this e-collection be integrated into the catalog?

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle

Published in 2005, so a bit dated at this point, The Search is still very relevant to those interested in what Google is up to and what libraries/librarians should be aware of. Bartelle explores web searching and explains why he thinks "search" will come to rule our economy and maybe even our culture in the near future. His book is packed with information on searching, on Google, on Google's founders, and more, but the key points I focused on were the following:

• how search works/ed in various search engines in 2005,
• who is searching the internet and how (most searchers enter just 1-2 words and do not used advanced search features available to them),
• what they are searching for (according to Bartelle, Google says over 50% of the searches entered daily into its engine are unique! (28) and many searches could be considered "commercial"),
• how money is made via targeted advertising (ads that appear correlate to one's searches and/or clickstream and companies pay Google for keywords),
• why search results will be better as more and more information is digitized and entered into Google's system (ubiquity) and more clickstreams are analyzed
• how web search history (your clickstream) will result in a personalized result set for you and bring up confounding issues of privacy
• how tagging will result in a search more tolerant of semantics (the semantic web)

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed has been on my reading list for almost 10 years. I'm incredibly happy that I finally got around to it! Ehrenreich's writing is easy to read even if her subject is not comfortable to read about. Essentially, Ehrenreich questioned the "conventional" wisdom of the late 1990s and early 2000s that welfare recipients simply needed to get out and get a job to live a better life. Ehrenreich tried it herself; she entered the workforce as a displaced homemaker, worked low wage jobs (waitress, maid, cleaning, nursing aid, sales), and struggled mightily to survive. Ehrenreich was not successful at survival, but her narrative of her attempts is telling. The best part of the book, however, is her evaluation of the experience and of public policy.

Ehrenreich will make most of us reconsider our welfare reform, the working poor, and our role in keeping the working poor in their place. To quote: "the 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else" (221).

Librarians often need to remind the rapidly digitizing, technologically connected world that there are technological "haves" and "have nots." Nickel and Dimed really cemented the "have nots" side of the world for me.

Mindspot: The Library as Universe

A YouTube video put up by Aahus Public Library. The library of the future? Focus on what is interesting and relevant to the users of the library. Library employees keep an ongoing and open dialog with library users about what the library should be.

The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr

Carr introduces the concept of computing/networking as a public utility (like water, electricity) rather than something that has to be done and supported in-house. Giving up control over one's computing infrastructure and letting it be housed and managed in disparate places throughout the world presents problematic questions of privacy and power. Libraries have always been interested in privacy for their patrons, so there is an obvious connection to the library world there. More interesting were Carr's frequent references to data-mining and how companies are using it to tailor information streaming to specific users. How will this impact searchers if they see only what they want to see and not what they need to see?