Amazing, right?!?! mShelf Reading: The way of the future. It sets my heart aflutter.

There’s lots being discussed in the world of eReaders and eBooks particularly with Google’s recent launch of Google eBooks. Slate has a nice critical overview of the launch, noting,

Google’s e-books are “open” in the same way that politicians are “bipartisan” and oil companies are “green”—the claim makes for good marketing, even if it lacks substance. Buying from Google rather than Amazon will give you no greater control over your books… In fact, Amazon’s “closed” books will soon work on more devices than Google’s “open” books.

… [Google ebooks] are protected by a digital rights management copy-protection scheme. As a result, the copyrighted books in Google’s bookstore can’t be shared, resold, or read on any device that doesn’t play nice with Google’s DRM.

Ouch. My beloved Digital Campus podcast weighs in on this same issue in episode 63, around the 5 minute mark (they are a bit more forgiving of Google’s efforts than Slate). Also from the realm of academia, there is an article in the Chronicles of Higher Education by Jennifer Howard that’s worth a read.

Basically, I gather, Google eBooks attempts to do what everyone else is doing — Sony, Apple, etc. — but with an altruistic twist. Google is providing a virtual space for independent bookstores to set up their own eBook shops in hopes that this might offer a sustainable business model for independent bookstores that have been decimated by the emergence of superstores like Chapters, and then, of course, by an online bookseller you made have heard of, called Amazon. Authors can also approach Google to broker deals individually, so there’s generally an attempt to make an open, accessible platform for the Little Guys. As the Digital Campus podcast points out, it’s like an “Open Bazaar” model for book sellers, rather than the closed platform offered by, for example Amazon and it’s Kindle eReader.

Okay — fine. I get that. Everyone wants a piece of this eBook pie, whether it be by way of the hardware, or the software. The big names are there, fighting it out like they always do.

The confusion comes in when, as an academic librarian, I begin to think about our own collection of thousands and thousands of eBooks — none of which are compatible with eBook readers. That’s right — we invest enormous amounts of money into eBooks that can only be read on a computer screen, and which often have highly restrictive policies about printing pages, and copying text. The average Kobo owner would probably not consider what we have an eBook collection at all. Our world of eBooks moves forward entirely in isolation from what our colleagues at public libraries are doing — what with their fancy eReader lending programs, and their subscriptions to eBooks that people can download directly to their own eReaders.

Remember, academia is the same place that brought you the eJournal, which is of course, in its highest form is simply a digital .pdf of the print article — a document that respects pagination and is easily printable, but which also has searchable text, and copy+paste functionality. It was a big deal in 1995, okay? (And let me tell you — the Millennials, with their A.D.D. and their  social networking and desire for eEverything, still want to just print those articles out so they can read a tactile document and fill it with highlighter and marginalia. Just like Everybody Else wants to do. The Millenials are Pretty Okay with eJournals in their current format, from what I can tell.)

So for me, the eBook landscape is con-FOOS-ing because we have the same name — eBook — to describe two very different things. I think these parallel silos are a testament to how profoundly differently we approach research collections and their consumption, versus how we think about  reading for leisure, and what users want and expect when consuming novels or popular books. One is this thing that you can read on your computer, even if you have to deal with restrictive access and a clunky interface, while the other is readable on all sorts of eyeball-friendly devices that are portable, lendable, and fun to read, but not all that useful for your Advanced Sociological Methodologies class.

When are these two worlds going to converge? Who are going to be the big winners and losers when the time comes? How is a company like Amazon going to react once it’s in direct competition with a player like NetLibrary (who was recently purchased by EbscoHost)? You might be thinking, “Who cares, I have never heard of NetLibrary in my life and therefore they will probably be one of the losers”, but consider this: According to some research, professional and scholarly ebooks account for more than three times the rest of the US ebook market combined. Three times. In light of numbers like that, it’s a lot harder to make predictions about the future of the eBooks landscape — one might even call it a little bit con-FOOS-ing.

Post Scriptum: I came across this article belatedly, but it has an awesome title and is pertinent to this blog post: The strange case of academic libraries and e-books nobody reads. Ha ha ha, oh Lie-berry Land.

I blogged over at Re:Generations again — this one a review of QR Codes. I posted about QR Codes here awhile back, but thought it might be a good Re:Gen topic too. In doing research for the blog post (a.k.a. Googling — librarians get to be lazy when they’re on vacation, okay?) I found an interesting article from College and Research Libraries News that is a really nice overview of the technology and its application in academic lie-berries. Called QR codes and academic libraries: Reaching mobile users, this is a solid overview of what a QR code is and how they work. But this is my favourite part – Check out the fabulous list of possible roles QR codes can play in your library:

• Library exhibits that include a QR code link to songs, videos, Web sites, surveys, contests, etc. or other information that augments the exhibits.

• Codes in the library stacks/end caps or magazine/journal areas that point to online electronic holdings of print materials or related subject guides.

• Linking to library audio tours for orientations.

• Code added to print handouts for additional information on mobile friendly sites.

• QR code with text that loads the library’s text message reference service and other contact information into the patron’s phone.

• Art shows or permanent art in libraries with a QR code linking to the artists’ Web sites.

• In catalog records to offer patrons basic info about an item, including the location and call number. Users can scan the code and head to the stacks rather than writing or printing.

• Taped to video/DVD cases, linking to mobile-friendly video trailers.

• Code placed on staff directory pages and research guides that go to mobile friendly sites for later reference.

• Code placed on audio book cases for author interviews or books for reviews.

• Code placed on study room doors connecting to room reservation forms.

• Library video tutorials—individual videos or create a QR code to a YouTube playlists of videos, which create a great mobile home screen app that can be saved for easy access, as needed.

Love it… lots of creative stuff to think about, and creating QR codes is easy and free!

This is Halifax, looking QUITE dapper.

Just so ya know I work with the bestest CLA committee eva, and we have TWO count ‘em TWOOOO sessions accepted at the CLA Conference in Halifax in May, 2011. Yay, us!

Here are the blurbs:

1) Technology Lightning Strikes!
Saturday, May 28 from 8:30 – 10:00 am

Overloaded with information? Feeling out of touch with emerging library trends? This session will provide a one-stop shop to get you updated on library technology trends! Each ten minute lightning talk will present a key emerging trend in library technologies from a leading expert in the field. Break-out groups will continue the conversation after, so you can learn about a topic in more depth.

2) Getting on (Tenure) Track: New Professionals and Academic Librarianship
Friday, May 27 from 8:30 – 10:00 am

Thinking about academic librarianship? Worried about tenure and research? This Unconference session is geared towards new and aspiring academic librarians. Hosted by CACUL’s Re:Generations committee, a panel of academic librarians will guide this interactive session and contribute their own insights. Topics might range from CVs to subject specialization, depending on the audience’s own interests.

See ya there! Remember, 8:30 Halifax time is like 2am Ontario time! Yummmmmy!

So instead, I’ll discuss all the fun and glorious things I presented on, at the conference”s poster session.

Me and my buddy Angela Hamilton (Science Librarian at York), presented our lovely poster on the topic, “Why screencasting? The benefits of interactive online tutorials”. I say it’s lovely because Angela designed it and she made it look far, far prettier than anything I’d have been able to churn out. Bravo to her.

The poster focused on our combined work creating Adobe Captivate videos, with a lit-review we did of existing articles on the topic of screencasting video use in librarians. In fact, there is a lot of interesting coverage of this topic and it informed not only the contents of our poster, but the way I approach my own video-making.

We wanted it to be interactive, so we had a laptop set up with Captivate installed, to show attendees just how easy the whole thing is. It was fun to demonstrate in about one minute how you can capture your activities on screen, and turn it into a published video. We also had another laptop set up with our finished videos running on it — videos like “How to use CINAHL” or “How to cite properly”. That was cool too, because it shows off the bell’s and whistle’s of the software, and makes us look like competent, tech-savvy lie-berrians. Which we are, of course.

If you are going to be participating in a poster session: Bring lots and lots and lots of handouts. Why do people love the handouts so much? They were like, stealing them right off the table. We ran out. Lesson learned: More handouts. We had about 40 and that wasn’t enough.

Some common questions we got asked were:

1. How much does this cost? Answer: It depends. The Adobe Captivate website has a section on their pricing for academic institutions. We generally encouraged people to download Jing or Wink first (both of which are free downloads), and get a taste for the tool, before taking the proprietary plunge.
2. How does Captivate compare to other screencasting softwares? Answer: Uh… I dunno. Heh. I use Jing at the reference desk, to make quick-’n-dirty vidoes to send to students via e-mail or chat reference, but I haven’t tried Captivate’s main competitor, Camtasia. Hopefully people were able to mosey over to our friend Alanna’s poster, where she talked about the Camtasia product. Maybe I’ll download a Camtasia trial to see how it compares.
3. Is it hard to use? Answer: It depends on what you want, and how comfortable you are with jumping into new technologies. You can take five minutes to make a video, or you can take five months. It depends more on your own goals, and you’re willingness to sink time and effort into the finished product, than on the technology itself.
4. What is the uptake like? Answer: Ah, good question. We’re trying to work out a good assessment scheme to figure out what students think of the videos, how much they use them, and how long they stay on each webpage. It’s tricky since regular Google Analytics code doesn’t work in .swf files — it’s a far more elaborate process to get the code to work on video files. So, we’ve cast evaluation and assessment of these videos as “future areas of research” (That was Angela’s idea — she’s crafty!).
5. Can I get a list of your references? Answer: Yeah, sure. They’re right here :

Anderson, R. P. et al. (2008). Topics and features of academic medical library tutorials. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 27(4), 406-418.

Anderson, R. P., & Wilson, S. P. (2009). Quantifying the effectiveness of interactive tutorials in medical library instruction. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 28(1), 10-21.

Betty, P. (2008). Creation, management, and assessment of library screencasts: The regis libraries animated tutorials project. Journal of Library Administration, 48(3-4), 295-315.

Betty, P. (2009). Assessing homegrown library collections: Using google analytics to track use of screencasts and flash-based learning objects. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 21(1), 75-92.

Kimok, D., & Heller-Ross, H. (2008). Visual tutorials for point-of-need instruction in online courses. Journal of Library Administration, 48(3-4), 527-543.

Klapperstuck, K., & Lackie, R. (2009). Cool tools for content creation: More than blogs or wikis. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 16(2), 12.

Kroski, E. (2009). That’s infotainment!: How to create your own screencasts. School Library Journal, 55(2), 40-42.

Liu, S., Liao, H., & Pratt, J. A. (2009). Impact of media richness and flow on E-learning technology acceptance. Computers & Education, 52(3), 599-607.

Oud, J. (2009). Guidelines for effective online instruction using multimedia screencasts. Reference Services Review, 37(2), 164-177.

Tempelman-Kluit, N. (2006). Multimedia learning theories and online instruction. College & Research Libraries, 67(4), 364-369.

I’m talking about videos created by academic educators — librarians among them — that explain really complex scholarly concepts in clear and succinct 5 minute (or so) videos. They’re from a variety of places, and have a variety of approaches, but the common thread is that they are amazing teaching tools. Watching them has actually made me a better instructional librarian, and I even played one in a class I taught because I though the creators did such a fantastic job of relaying key information literacy concepts.

So, I thought I’d include a few here, in no particular order. Drum roll, please:

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals, by PeabodyLibrary

After I viewed this video for the first time, I told my boss we needed to get a cartoonist on staff. *snort*
The distinction between scholarly and popular publications is hugely important for business students. Their assignment topics are tangible and rooted in the real world of current affairs and commerce, and they’re often required to review not only academic publications, but also trade magazines and newspapers. But of course, they need to know when to use which. This video lays out the differences fantastically, and it’s also entertaining.

Peer Review in Five Minutes, by libncsu (a.k.a. the North Carolina State University Libraries)

I love this video because I found myself having to explain to students what peer-review is, as an extension of the whole, “What IS a scholarly article? And why is the librarian explaining this to me?” discussion. It’s hard for students to understand just how different scholarly articles are from popular articles, but I think this really hits the point home. And anyone who’s demo-ed how to look up journals in Ulrich’s will understand why I’m glad she explained what “referred” means.
“Just look for the referee jersey!”
“Wait, I though I was looking for journals that are peer-reviewed, not refereed.”
“Ah, I forgot to mention… those are the same thing…”
*look of skepticism/confusion*

It’s funny when she says, “As you know… professors are up to a lot more than teaching students.” Because literally: My first-year students didn’t know that. They didn’t know that their professors were distinctly different than their high school teachers. And why would they? Nobody told them! But this video makes the connection.

Critical Thinking, by QualiaSoup

This one was brought to my attention by my friend Mark, who is the Continuing Teacher Education Librarian at Queen’s University. It tackles critical thinking, in video format. So right off the bat, we have to give kudos for grappling with such a tough subject matter. But further kudos to the creators for grappling with it so well. There is not an instructional session that goes by that I don’t find myself telling students that they have to think critically about the information they’re using in their research. It’s the whole point of information literacy, and it’s paramount to the work of academics. And librarians. And especially, academic librarians.

Now, I might not ever show this one in a class. But like I told Mark, watching it and understanding its contents makes me a better instructor, and helps immensely to relay those high-level concepts in a clear and logical way.

But then I watched this video of the Hero’s capabilities, and I got really excited.The thing weighs less than my keys (100 grams to be specific) and is faster than my Dream.

Also, if you don’t find the guys giving the presentation totally adorable, you have a cold heart.

I know material items are not the path to happiness, but I think this phone might be an exception. It makes me REALLY and TRULY HAPPY.

Scan me!

Do you have a smart phone? If you do, go download a barcode reader app. I have one for my Android phone, and it’s simply called Barcode Scanner. I guess if wanted to, you could also carry around an actual barcode scanner, but that’s… weird.

Bill the Web Librarian at York University Libraries, and the author of the esteemed Miskatonic University Press wrote this post, in which he offers up his great idea for a Code4Lib 2010 t-shirt design. Just hover your barcode reader over the image to see what comes up. Tons and TONS of interesting  applications for this technology, and many thanks to Bill for bringing the tool to my attention.