Library Offering Video Down Loads

From the Rocky Mountain News "Next month, the Denver Public Library system will become the first in the nation to allow people to download movies and concert videos from home with a click of their computer mouse."

Housing Prices In Different Cities

"HousingTracker is an attempt to gain a more realtime understanding of the national housing market. For the most part, all we have to rely on the quarterly Realtor reports to get a sense of how the last quarter played out. HousingTracker data is compiled weekly from MLS listings which contains asking prices as opposed to the Realtor reported sale prices. HousingTracker gives you the 25th percentile, 50th percentile, and 75th percentile asking price for the metro areas covered. Additionally, the number of homes for sale (Inventory) for the metro area is reported."

New Development in Electronic Books

"HarperCollins has announced the first free Web-based, ad-supported, full-text business book. Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own by Bruce Judson is now available on the author’s Web site, where an affiliate link to Amazon, not the publisher, can also be found. Not only can the book be read at the site, but it can also be searched. HarperCollins Publishers is calling the project a test of a new business model. Some self-published authors also offer ad-supported books online, but HarperCollins’ move is the first by a major publisher."

Source: InfoToday

What's Shaking?

You can now keep up with earthquakes throughout the world by visiting the USGS Earthquake Hazards website. And if that is not timely enough they have a service that provides automated email notification for worldwide earthquakes. So you can always know what is shaking... or at least where is shaking.

Tables of Contents in Library Catalogs

"A new JISC project is developing an RSS news feed service that will automatically feed publisher and e-journal information into library catalogues. Led by the publisher Emerald, and supported by library supplier Talis, the project will finish in July 2006". This is worth monitoring as it develops to see if we can apply it to our catalog to add value for the patrons.

Digital Library Projects in the News

Libraries all of the country are working digital library projects. This article from Campus Technology takes a look at three different projects as examples of the types of things happening with digital libraries.

State Transportation Statistics (STS) 2005

This report presents a statistical profile of transportation in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This is the third annual edition of the State Transportation Statistics, and a companion document to the National Transportation Statistics (NTS), which is updated quarterly on the BTS website.

Homeschooling in the United States

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics presents the latest survey information on the prevalence of homeschooling in the United States. Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 uses the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) to estimate the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the United States in 2003 and to describe the characteristics of these students and their families.

RSS Feeds from the Government

FirstGov.gov is the official U.S. gateway to all government information, and is the catalyst for a growing electronic government. Now FirstGov.gov is offering a service that will allow people to stay on top of important government news and information with the FirstGov Updates - News and Features RSS feed

Educational Lectures on the Web

There are many sources on the web of free educational lectures from many different institutions of higher education. One example is the Research Channel. The website has the following description :


"ResearchChannel is a completely unique viewing experience, similar in nature to C-SPAN, but with a very different focus: research. Some of the world’s premier academic and research institutions invite viewers inside the lab to learn about the current, ongoing research that will impact their lives and shape
the future. And unlike other education-based channels, ResearchChannel is broadcast 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, with no commercial nterruptions. In addition to conventional television broadcasts, on-line audiences worldwide have access to ResearchChannel’s continuous webcast and searchable on-demand video library of over 1700 fulllength
programs. These resources are available at Internet2, cable, DSL and modem speeds."

Library Branding

Library marketing sepcialist Chris Olsen has some ideas on library branding and what it might mean to our marketing efforts.

Rethinking Bibliographic Services

The University of California Libraries Bibliographic Services Task Force has released a report on the nature of bibiliographic services and how they should be provided in the future.

"On the Library front, our bibliographic systems have not kept pace with this changing environment. The continuing proliferation of formats, tools, services, and technologies has upended how we arrange, retrieve, and present our holdings. Our users expect simplicity and immediate reward and Amazon, Google, and iTunes are the standards against which we are judged. Our current systems pale beside them."