Digital cameras 

Digital Sensor Is Said to Match Quality of Film by John Markoff

If Carver Mead is right, photographic film is an endangered species.

Dr. Mead, who is 67, was a pioneer of the modern computer chip industry in the 1970's. But he has never stopped inventing. And on Monday his Silicon Valley start-up, Foveon, plans to begin shipping a new type of digital image sensor that outside experts agree is the first to match or surpass the photographic capabilities of 35-millimeter film.

The company's sensor chip is being used in a single-lens reflex camera that Sigma, a Japanese camera and lens maker, plans to begin selling for about $3,000 later this month. A second generation of Foveon's sensors is scheduled for shipping this fall and, if other camera makers embrace it, could become available early next year in more popular brands of digital cameras selling for less than $1,000. [read more]

Gary Frost on... 

Strategic Library Plan & Preservation

Library administration is charged to produce strategic plans. They produce one and then another to replace the last. The lists of "directions", "goals" and "initiatives" swirl. Many of the labels; "remote learning", "continuing education", "support technology" mean something else. At the end of the process, the new plan is as strategic as the old one.

One strategic shift that needs attention is that from collection management to instructional services. This shift is imposed by the diversification of reading modes. Libraries are the best positioned and most discipline neutral base for instruction in reading mode skills, particularly in the skillful integration of print and on-line reading. Library instruction can also explain taxonomies of source reading modes conveyed to other delivery reading modes.

Meanwhile, collection management, as a second strategic focus, has experienced its own shifts. A basic shift is from a focus on new title course work support to a concern for maintenance and elaboration of delivery services of resources already afforded and acquired. Development of collections is now involved with the negotiations over preferred reading mode and adjustment to available modes. This dynamic alone requires management attention. [read more]

Creative Commons 

All Hail Creative Commons: Stanford professor and author Lawrence Lessig plans a legal insurrection by Hal Plotkin

In an interview last week, Lessig confirmed the basic details about his latest venture, Creative Commons, which is slated to be formally unveiled in a few months.

In a boon to the arts and the software industry, Creative Commons will make available flexible, customizable intellectual-property licenses that artists, writers, programmers and others can obtain free of charge to legally define what constitutes acceptable uses of their work. The new forms of licenses will provide an alternative to traditional copyrights by establishing a useful middle ground between full copyright control and the unprotected public domain.

...Within a few months, artists, writers and others will soon be able to go online, select the options that suit them best and receive a custom-made license they can append to their works without having to pay a dime to a lawyer, let alone the thousands of dollars it typically costs to purchase similar legal services.

...In one masterstroke, Lessig and colleagues will empower creators of intellectual property by giving them more control over their work while also increasing the communal technical resources that contribute to innovation and growth. The result will be a new spark of life for the Internet, and for the tech sector in general. [read more]

Still looking for a book? 

Booklists!

A HUGE list of links to lists of books, mostly fiction, in a myriad of categories.

Thanks to Waterboro Public Library.

Unique and Rare 

SOURCE--Students Organization for Unique and Rare Collections Everywhere

Mission Statement:

The Student Organization for Unique and Rare Collections Everywhere, (SOURCE), addresses the interests of students who wish to learn more about special collections, archives, digital archiving, records management, museums, rare books, manuscripts, and preservation.

To increase the visibility of these issues at SCILS, the group coordinates outreach programs and events, encourages curriculum expansion, and creates a supportive network of professionals, faculty, alumni, and organizations with similar interests. This network facilitates the free exchange of information about jobs, internships, and new developments in the field, as well as offers our members advice and support.

Our website serves as a link between the group and those interested in its activities. To encourage communication within the group, our listserv serves as a forum for debate and discussion dealing with these issues. The group extends a welcome to current graduate students, undergraduates, alumni, and prospective students.

Looking for a book? 

BookFinder.com

BookFinder.com connects readers to over 40,000 booksellers from around the world with an open marketplace for all their online book shopping needs.

BookFinder.com, the open marketplace for books online is produced by 13th Generation Media, of Berkeley, California. The company was founded by a couple of recent University of California grads with a taste for grassroots-driven ecommerce, and afflicted with severe cases of bibliophilia. BookFinder.com's goal is to provide fellow readers unbiased real-time information about books available online.

Rather than selling books ourselves, our team of high-tech book geeks has worked to create a truly useful free book search tool for all kinds of readers. BookFinder.com is a one-stop search site that lets users view the collections of over 40,000 sellers of new, used, rare, and out-of-print books. The forty million titles available comprise the largest book catalog available anywhere, either online or offline. [check it out]

Thanks to Library Juice! 

Thank you to Library Juice for the recognition.

But it is a library, isn't it? 

Carrollton libraries shed bookish image by Micharel A. Lindenberger

Ask Joel Lunde what he remembers about the libraries he frequented as a youth, and he doesn't have to think long: "Old, dirty, dungy and dated."

"What I remember most were the rules: No chewing gum. No food. And no beverages in the library," he said.

But finding himself with a few hours between meetings last week, the 37-year-old salesman popped into the newest branch of the Carrollton Public Library. His jaw dropped.

"I was shocked," Mr. Lunde said. "It was like I walked into a Barnes & Noble ‚ with the computers, comfortable chairs and even a coffee shop. I've never seen anything like this before." [read more]

One step forward, four steps back? 

On January 10, 2002, First Lady Laura Bush proposed a $10 million dollar initiative to recruit a new generation of librarians.

Yet, in his first year in office, President George Bush cut federal funding to libraries by $39 million dollars.