Archives
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
PLA Blog - Word-of-Mouth Marketing
The four key elements to a successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign are: a clean, memorable and consistent message; a good product/GREAT customer relations; a prepared and committed sales force, people who are willing to testify and a plan.
Marketing — laura
Library Journal
Library Journal - Everything I Need To Know I Learned Online
Online communities can help librarians save time, establish professional links, and reconnect with the roots of the profession
Library Links — laura
Monday, March 28, 2005
Economist: assault on filesharing by entertainment biz is senseless
Boing Boing: Economist: assault on filesharing by entertainment biz is senseless
This news analysis piece in the Economist says
attacking the technology behind file-sharing could stifle innovation without tackling the industry’s long-term problems.
And perhaps the decline in global sales is indicative of a far greater problem for the music industry—consumers simply think that many of its products are just not worth paying for
Copyright — laura
Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library’s Services
Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library’s Services
Librarians have had to learn how to do a lot with just a little in order to promote awareness of their programs and services. They have seized the opportunities to market libraries in the real world via traditional media: newspapers, corporate newsletters, radio, and TV. Many libraries produce brochures, pathfinders, and their own newsletters. So it is no surprise to see librarians stepping up to the plate and spreading the word online with blogs. Savvy librarians have identified blogs as another means to market libraries and their services.
DRM isn’t just ineffective, it does active harm
librarian.net:DRM isn’t just ineffective, it does active harm
the EFF states
…[DRM] has been in wide deployment for a decade with no benefit to artists and with substantial cost to the public and to due process, free speech and other civil society fundamentals.
Open Access — laura
Thursday, March 24, 2005
RIAA’s story doesn’t add up
Boing Boing: Record sales up, P2P sales up — RIAA’s story doesn’t add up
According to the RIAA, CD sales are increasing. Now, the RIAA also says that P2P destroys music sales, so it follows that if they’re selling more CDs there must be less P2P, right? Uh, no — file-sharing is up, too (so CD sales should be falling right?).
So is it possible that CD sales and P2P are decoupled (as all the quantitative, independent research indicates), and that the downturn in CD sales is better laid at the feed of bad business, a bad economy, fewer albums and more things competing for entertainment dollars (cough games cough Internet cough).
Copyright — laura
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Edward Vielmetti
Edward Vielmetti Hears From His Library…and he Blogs It
I’m sure Edward was a big library user before he got this e-mail, but now he will probably be a bigger one now. Plus, he’ll tell his friends about what his library is doing with RSS. Can you say free PR?
Library Links — laura
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Good Impression
librarian.net:way to make a good impression, librarians!
No seriously. Found this blog post from Fil, a member of the “video game community” talking about meeting some librarians at a symposium about the future of libraries.
I hate not having the ability to give items the attention they deserve.
Gaming — laura
RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream
Engineering Information - Ei UPDATE Online NewsletterRSS: Moving Into the Mainstream
RSS, or Real Simple Syndication/Rich Site Summary, is rapidly moving into our professional and personal lives as a way to keep track of the ever-increasing flow of new information. As a current awareness service, RSS allows for one-stop shopping. Recently, Ei started testing RSS feeds with Engineering Village 2 databases, which will allow users to plug the RSS feed from their search strategy into the reader of their choice, ending the need to rerun the search on a regular basis or deal with more e-mail in the form of alerts. With the RSS reader, users keep citations of critical interest for future reference, deleting others as required.
A good overview for librarians.
Web Tools — laura
Friday, March 18, 2005
Game developers’ amazing rants
Yes I read other sites, I’m just cleaning out some of my drafts file. There are a couple of weeks left before I go back to work. I’m still waiting for my eye to get to where I can get new glasses.
Boing Boing: Game developers’ amazing rants on the state of the industry
You have choices too: work in a massive sweatshop publisher-run studio with thousands of others making the next racing game with the same gameplay as Pole Position. Or you can riot in the streets of redwood city! Choose another business model, development path, and you can choose to remember why you love games and make sure in a generation’s time there are still games to love.
It sounds like as the game industry becomes more mainstream it’s going through similar problems as journal publishing. Libraries would be a good distribution mechanism for independants. Let patrons try the games in the library and when they’re hooked, they’ll have to buy their own versions. The game makers get publicity and libraries have another useful service to offer.
Gaming — laura
US gov’t to apply DRM to public, non-copyrighted info that you already paid for
Boing Boing: US gov’t to apply DRM to public, non-copyrighted info that you already paid for
…the Government Printing Office, is proposing a new set of policies that will drastically reduce free access to government information. Three librarians from the University of California San Diego have written an article about the details.
On a different topic, are librarians developing a reputation among scholarly circles?
Open Access — laura
Fast Content For Library Web Sites
Always Fresh: Fast Content For Library Web Sites with Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Keeping a library web site up to date with fresh content is a challenge for any webmaster. Learn how to publish, merge and format RSS feeds into instant web content. Discover how libraries have made specialized pages featuring article titles of new journal issues, new library acquisitions, book and movie reviews, and much more. Take away a list of sites that allow anyone to simply cut, paste and publish RSS content to their site in seconds.Web Tools — laura
Building Communities in the Palm of your Hand
Building Communities in the Palm of your Hand discusses the ways libraries can become more pda/smartphone friendly, and therefore more user friendly.
This is particularly an important subject for health sciences libraries. PDA’s are very popular with doctors and when they need information they want it immediately with as little trouble as possible. My library constantly has trouble with both the doctors and students not being able to find journal on the the shelves, a tracking systen would cut down on a lot of frustration. But then there are the privacy issues…
Regardless, mobile device services are definately something to think about.
Library Links — laura
Thursday, March 17, 2005
LibraryTechtonics: Presentation tips
LibraryTechtonics: Presentation tips
Because everyone needs to present sooner or later.
Career Info — laura
Monday, March 7, 2005
Canada’s copyfight
Boing Boing: Canada’s copyfight explained, demystified
In Canada, the entertainment industry has decided that Canada’s copyright (which has been updated dozens of times since it was first introduced” is outdated and must be updated to look like American copyright law, but even worse. For example, Canada’s rightsholders want to replace “notice-and-takedown” (an ISP has to remove material when someone complains that it might be infringing) with a “notice-and-terminate” regime (an ISP has to kick off its customer if anyone, anywhere accuses them of infringing).
Copyright — laura
Databases Behind Shops
Digital Web Magazine - Databases Behind Shops covers the basics of SQL with examples.
Web Tools — laura
Sunday, March 6, 2005
ITI-InfoCentral.com
ITI-InfoCentral.com is the new digital archive of Information Today, Inc. Search, browse, preview and purchase from over 25,000 full-text news reports, articles, interviews, and critical reviews about the companies, products and people in the library, electronic information services, and digital content industries. ITI-InfoCentral.com links to ITI’s archives, from September 1987 to the present, from Information Today, ONLINE, Searcher, Computers in Libraries, EContent, EMedia/EventDV, Multimedia & Internet@Schools, CRM, and KMWorld. The collection also includes past issues of Link-Up. Articles are available in a variety of formats, Preview, Full Text, Text Graphics, and Page Image PDF, on a pay-per-view basis, courtesy of ProQuest Archiver
Library-focused and less expensive than Dialog.
Library Links — laura
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Copyright hurts creators
Boing Boing: Musicians don’t earn living from copyright, copyright hurts creators
The excellent free peer-reviewed net-journal First Monday has published an exhaustive survey of the earnings made by British and German musicians. Their conclusion? Copyright doesn’t give creators a living, and in many cases (such as clearing samples) it costs them more than they can afford.
Copyright — laura
