DailyLit : Read books by email or RSS

According to the DailyLit web site:

DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed. We currently offer over 750 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis (with sample installments available for free). You can read your installments wherever you receive e-mail/RSS feeds, including on your Blackberry and iPhone. Installments arrive in your Inbox according to the schedule you set (e.g. 7:00am every weekday). You can read each installment in under 5 minutes (most folks finish in 2-3 minutes), and, if you have more time to read, you can receive additional installments immediately on demand. Our titles include bestselling and award winning titles, from literary fiction and romance to language learning and science fiction. DailyLit features forums where you can discuss your favorite books and authors.

The service works well, I tried it but did not succeed in finishing Phaedra for the same reason I haven't read the book. I always felt their was something more important I should be doing.

The Expectation Economy

According to Trendwatching.com we are in the midst of a trend called the Expectation Economy.

"The EXPECTATION ECONOMY is an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service and experience on offer.

Their expectations are based on years of self-training in hyperconsumption, and on the biblical flood of new-style, readily available information sources, curators and BS filters. Which all help them track down and expect not just basic standards of quality, but the 'best of the best'."

Word of mouth now travels the world in a flash, making product launches instantly global, turning every new brand—big or small—into a potential 'player', and most importantly, rewarding exceptional performance with immediate interest and approval from consumers.

As we push library services toward a 2.0 model, we must be aware that the customer expectations have already been set by the likes of Facebook and Myspace. I wonder if that explains why our venture into Myspace did not get much public attention.

But on the other hand, I have received lots of feedback on MyLibraryDV. Our initiatives to offer downloadable movies from MyLibraryDV to our patrons, is an example where we want the library to be the place where customers first learn to watch and download movies (and set their expectations) before the marketplace of Netflix, iTunes, and other online movie rental places overtake us.

The report goes on to say that consumers in economies of abundance are increasingly spending their “play money” on goods and services that net them the experience, the indulgence, the excitement, the satisfaction they’re looking for at a specific moment. So for public libraries, how do we align our services and products to “net them the experience they are looking for at that moment?’ or better yet, how do we create that moment?”

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Atlantic Monthly web site going free

From the January 22, 2008 Editor's note.
Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors. We're pleased to bring The Atlantic before a broader online audience. We hope that the quality of its writing, the trenchancy of its insights, and the depth and thoughtfulness of its reporting will inspire many of our online readers to join the family by becoming print subscribers."

The magazine's printed content, including archives from 1995-present, is now free for the general public on its web site. Archives dating back to 1857 are available as part of a for-pay premium pass program, excluding articles from January, 1964 - September, 1992, which are left out for copyright purposes.

Street Space express workstation

What do you think of these as express walk up stations for our patrons. I saw them at CES.
They have no moving parts and can be networked to do most of what we need.

Library of Congress places photos on Flickr

The Library of Congress today launched a pilot project with Flickr -- of the ~14 million prints, photos and other visual materials at the LoC, they've uploaded about 3,000 copyright-free photographs from two popular collections to a new Flickr account. The big idea: get folks to tag 'em all. Why? Spokesperson Matt Raymond explains:

[M]any photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

We’re also very excited that, as part of this pilot, Flickr has created a new publication model for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” Flickr hopes—as do we—that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions, as well.

From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and—most importantly—wisdom. One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it.

From Xeni Jardin on BoingBoing

Innovation= change that adds value

The Editor's comments from this months Technology Review reminds me that when we change how we do something or when we add new technology or techniques, that the reason is to make things better. We are not interested in changing because we can, we change because it helps our patrons, or it helps us help our patrons, or it makes it easier for us to do our job or the patron to find the info they want.

When you think about it, isn't that what web 2.0/ Library 2.0 is about, innovation? i.e. allowing patron's access to make things easier for themselves. Who better to make the catalog better than the public who uses it?

Generation Y is biggest user of libraries.

Thanks to Lisa for pointing us to this article showing that Generation Y is biggest user of libraries in the last year. The survey was completed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The article from Yahoo news says
"More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday.

Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.

"These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.

"Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.

Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.

More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library.

Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources.

Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.

The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72.

"We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future.

"Scroll forward 10 years and their younger brothers and sisters are now the most avid library users," Rainie said.

The survey of 2,796 Americans was conducted by telephone from late June through early September and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It was funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that offers federal support for U.S. libraries and museums.

(Reporting by Julie Vorman; Editing by Bill Trott)"