Wize.com - great site for product comparisons and reviews

If you are thinking about purchasing a product (printer, camera, television, tablet) and need to check available brands on the market or look at reviews Wize.com is the resource where this information is readily available. This free website collects millions of product reviews and brings them all into one place. This not only saves you time, but gives you rankings and personal reviews to help you make a purchasing decision.

This Wize.com does by harvesting feedback from all over the web and assigning a score to each product between 1 and 100 that is based on user reviews and rankings from independent sources. The advantage of this approach is that Wize is not selling the products so this information is somewhat unbiased.

For example, if searching for digital scanners, type in the word "scanner" in the search box, or go to the category lists (electronics, home and garden, health & beauty, computers & office, video games) to find your product of choice. Once the search has been conducted, on the the Wize review page searchers can view a  ranking score, with the top-ranked scanners first, and the number of recommendations and reviews  displayed prominently. Users are also allowed to sort by other filters (most recommended, newest, lowest price, highest price).

How mainstream media outlets use Twitter

Journalism.org  recently published a report on how mainstream media outlets use Twitter Among the findings of this new study: ·         The news outlets studied varied widely in the number of Twitter feeds or channels offered and in how frequently they posted. On average, the news organizations offered 41 different feeds. The Washington Post, at the top of the list, offered 98, more than twice the average. The Daily Caller, on the other hand, offered a single Twitter feed. The level of activity also ranged widely. While as a group the outlets in the sample averaged 33 tweets a day on their main organizational Twitter feed, that number ranged from close to 100 a day to fewer than 10. ·         These news organizations were much more similar in the focus of their Twitter activity. The vast majority of the postings promoted the organizations’ own work and sent users back to their websites. On the main news feeds, fully 93 percent of the postings over the course of the week offered a link to a news story on the organization’s own website. ·         News organizations rarely used Twitter as a reporting tool or to curate or recommend information that originated elsewhere. Just 2 percent of the tweets from the main news feed analyzed were information-gathering in nature—seeking views or first-hand accounts from readers. And only 1 percent of tweets studied were “retweets” that were reposted from a Twitter feed outside of the organization. View the report »

New trend in reading: the immersive experience: built-in video, audio and other interactive features

 Rather than writing another thriller, best-selling author, Jeff Buick decided to give readers an experience. Readers of One Child will be immersed in the story, learning more about characters, their interests, their connection and even their work places.

As the story unfolds, readers of One Child discover rich media content including audio, video and interactive social media allowing readers to interact and experience the book's characters in greater depth:

• Social media profiles (Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube etc.) have been created for many of the characters as well as websites for the corporations in the book. If you send a character a message (by e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) they will respond directly to your message.
• At the end of each chapter, readers are encouraged to discuss the happenings in the book online. A meeting place on Facebook has been created where readers can discuss their findings and chat about where they see the story going.
• To set the tone, each new day in the story is greeted with a radio broadcast from WKIO News 510 AM, an fictitious online radio station, based in "New York".
• Topping off the reader's experience are 4 segments of the book that have been dramatized by professional actors and filmed on a set resembling Afghanistan. You can view these video segments as you read the story on your computer or iPad.

Publisher's blurb: http://onechildonline.com/the-immersive-experience

Pew Research Center to study role of public libraries in the digital age

On October 17, the Pew Research Center announced plans to study how the role of public libraries is changing in the digital age and how library patrons’ needs and expectations are shifting. The new research is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a 3-year, $1.4 million investment and will be conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Through national surveys, a series of focus groups in a diverse mix of communities, and special surveys of library patrons, the Pew Internet Project will examine how library users’ habits and tastes are changing in the age of e-books, widespread mobile connectivity and the existence of vast digital collections.

The new research will be launched as the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank based in Washington, DC, expands its research on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.

Web 2.0 Tools for you

Here is my presentation for the Library 2.011 conference titled Web 2.0 Tools For You - A Cybrarian's Guide to Free Resources on the Web and their Practical Application in Libraries and other Work Environments

Click on this link to listen to the recording http://www.library20.com/page/general-session-room-links (scroll to my name Cheryl Peltier-Davis arranged by first name) and click on the recording link)

Library 2.011 - Free Web Tools - Cheryl Peltier-Davis

View more presentations from cdtrini

Library 2.011 Conference November 2-4, 2011

Session Title: Web 2.0 Tools For You - A Cybrarian's Guide to Free Resources on the Web and their Practical Application in Libraries and other Work Environments

Description: Where can I find these Web 2.0 resources? When can I start using these new Web 2.0 technologies? How can I keep up given my busy schedule? These are comments often heard from Cybrarians after they have attended a conference or workshop presentation on Web 2.0 and allied technologies. The answers to these questions and much more will be addressed in this presentation by librarian and self-professed Web 2.0 advocate Cheryl Peltier-Davis. This presentation will highlight free Web 2.0 tools on the Internet, offering in-depth summaries and practical applications of these technologies in libraries and other working environments. Coverage is wide-ranging, catering to the needs of most tech-savvy attendees: creating a book review blog, social bookmarking a reference collection, creating subject specific RSS feeds, developing a policy driven wiki, recording a podcast, creating a tutorial using digital video, attracting fans on a Facebook page or providing regular tweets on upcoming events in the library. Attendees will discover dozens of resources which hitherto have remained hidden, or re-discover tools which they may have used and found helpful. This presentation is guaranteed to be beneficial to librarians and other information professionals wishing to harness the potential of Web 2.0 technologies in providing innovative, value added services at their workplace and keeping up to date with developments in this highly dynamic and fast-moving area.

Date: November 3, 2011

Time: 4:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Link to View Presentation: http://www.library20.com/page/general-session-room-links (search by first name Cheryl Peltier-Davis)

Public library books for Kindle

Library patrons will soon be able to borrow Kindle books from more than 11,000 libraries in the United States to read on any generation Kindle device, free Kindle app, or in their browser with Kindle Cloud Reader. Public library books for Kindle provide the same unique features as Kindle and Kindle books, including Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read, real page numbers, and more. Books are downloaded over Wi-Fi or USB, but 3G will not be supported.

From Amazon’s new “Public Library Books for Kindle” instructional page the service is described as follows:
-Visit the website of a U.S. library that offers digital services from OverDrive.
-Check out a Kindle book (library card required).
-Click on “Get for Kindle.” You will then be directed to Amazon.com to redeem your public library loan.
-You may be required to login to your Amazon.com account — or create a new account — if you’re not already logged in.
-Choose to read the book on your Kindle device, free reading app, or Kindle Cloud Reader

WorldCat Quality: An OCLC Report [OCLC - Reports]

This OCLC paper on WorldCat quality describes OCLC's steps to make it easier to find items in WorldCat and get them from OCLC member libraries. It begins with a review of WorldCat's unprecedented growth since 2008, largely from metadata contributed from national libraries and union catalogs from outside North America. This rapid growth has challenged OCLC's programs for managing duplicate entries and library location (holdings) information.

OCLC's 2010 implementation of new duplication detection and resolution (DDR) software helped to resolve the issue of true duplicates in WorldCat; however, WorldCat quality needs to be further strengthened.
The paper goes on to describe a special project—GLIMIR—and other WorldCat quality improvement projects scheduled for FY2012. GLIMIR's principal benefits will be to improve the clustering of WorldCat records and holdings for the same work, thus reducing the complexity of search result displays and supporting more reliable linking to local library catalogs.

The paper concludes that it is necessary to reinvent OCLC's long-standing and successful, but English-language-centric approaches to metadata creation and data quality management for the realities of the increasingly multilingual, multinational OCLC cooperative.

Click on the link to download the report which is freely avaialble online: WorldCat Quality: An OCLC Report [OCLC - Reports]

New Book - The Cybrarian's Web: An A—Z Guide to 101 Free Web 2.0 Tools and Other Resources

• 
  
  The Cybrarian's Web : An A—Z Guide to 101 Free Web 2.0 Tools and Other Resources
  By Cheryl Ann Peltier-Davis
  Foreword by Stephen Abram
  
  "A great starting point for learning about Web 2.0 tools that can be used to innovate and improve library services. The 101 evaluations presented in The Cybrarian's Web will help librarians gain a better understanding of social software and the many ways to use it in a library setting. A must-read for any information professional who cares about online collaboration and sharing among users."
  
  —Prof. Purísima Centeno Alayón, Centro de
  Información y Tecnologías (CITec),
  University of Puerto Rico
  Here is a remarkable field guide to the best of free Web 2.0 tools and their practical applications in libraries and information centers. Designed for info pros who want to use the latest tech tools to connect, collaborate, and create, you''ll find resources to help you:
  



• Launch a local news & events blog
  



• Build a customized social network
  



• Create a virtual reference desk
  



• Start an ebook lending program
  



• Host virtual art & photo exhibits
  



• Publicize events & innovations
  



• Survey the library community
  



• Help aspiring authors get published
  



• Produce & stream live video
  



• More!
  
  From Aardvark to Zotero, you'll discover dozens of lesser-known resources and learn exciting new ways to use many of the most popular sites and tools. With all this and a supporting webpage, The Cybrarian's Web is a winner!
  
  "This book belongs on every library innovator's bookshelf. This isn't just for the techies and, indeed, it would be a shame to limit its use to techies. Web 2.0 is first and foremost about the end-user experience and, so, for every reference librarian, trainer, director, web content writer, blogger and library leader, review the opportunities in this guide as part of your strategic planning process. You'll be glad you did!"
  
  —Stephen Abram, vice president,
  Cengage Learning, from the Foreword
  November 2011/456 pp/softbound ISBN 978-1-57387-427-4 Regular Price: $49.50 Preorder Sale Price: $37.13
  Order Now: Print Edition
  
  

IFLA 2011

The 77th annual IFLA General Conference and Assembly, took place at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 13-18 August 2011. With a congress theme of Libraries beyond libraries: Integration, Innovation and Information for all the conference was power-packed with content for all librarians seeking to integrate innovative services in their libraries. Congratulations to the local organizing community for a well organized conference.

I was part of a panel for the Library History Special Interest Group. Here is a list of the presentations with links to the full text of each paper:

Overview of library services in the English-speaking Caribbean: management, innovative services and resource sharing CHERYL ANN PELTIER-DAVIS (Alvin Sherman Library, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA)

Historical overview of library development in the English-speaking CaribbeanBEVERLEY Y. HINDS (University of the West Indies, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social & Economic Studies (SALISES), Audine Wilkinson Library, Bridgetown, Barbados)

Using Web 2.0 technologies to build communities: a Caribbean context and historical perspective BEVERLEY A. WOOD (University of West Indies Library, Bridgetown, Barbados)

El Lector's canon: social dynamics of reading from Havana to TampaSTEPHANIE L. MAATTA (School of Library and Information Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA)

http://conference.ifla.org/ifla77/sessions/library-history-special-interest-group

The OCLC Board of Trustees will engage OCLC members in the process to select a successor to Jay Jordan, who plans to retire as OCLC President and CEO at the end of June 2012. http://amplify.com/u/a1abvs

OCLC Global Library Statistics page

In order to satisfy numerous requests for statistics about the worldwide library community OCLC created the Global Library Statistics page for use by the entire library community. The interactive page includes data for the total number of libraries, librarians, volumes, expenditures and users for every country and territory in the world broken down into the major library types: academic, public, school, special and national. The service was originally a joint project of OCLC Research and the OCLC Library, and Research has contributed to its development.

New OCLC Report on Digitization

OCLC Research Division recently published a report of interest to Librarians and Archivists titled: “Scan and Deliver: Managing User-initiated Digitization in Special Collections and Archives”. This report presents strategies for providing efficient and economical delivery of digital copies of materials in special collections. It also looks at the
factors affecting digitization-on-demand workflows and ways to reduce cumbersome workflow and policy issues. This report is certain to be of use to information professionals who wish to learn about how libraries have adapted local practices to simplify user-initiated digitization workflows and also devloped common strategies for streamlining the process of creating and delivering digital images to users.

More information about the origins of the report is listed on the OCLC website

The full text of ther report is located here: http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-05.pdf

OCLC Report now available - Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community

A new OCLC report Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community, a sequel to the 2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, is now available as a free download. The new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online information habits, preferences and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected information-seeking behaviors and how those changes are reflected in the use and perception of libraries.

The report explores the following issues:

• Technological and economic shifts since 2005
• Lifestyle changes Americans have made during the recession, including increased use of the library and other online resources.
• How a negative change to employment status impacts use and perceptions of the library
• How Americans use online resources and libraries in 2010
• Perceptions of libraries and information resources based on life stage, from teens to college students, to senior Americans.

Amazon rolls out new lending feature for Kindle users

Following on the heels of competing e-reader Nook (Barnes and Nobles) built in LendMe feature, Amazon has finally acquiesced to users requests and added a lending feature for its very popular Kindle e-book reader. Users can loan out supported publishers titles once for a period of 14 days, but there is a one-loan limitation which prohibits the lender from accessing the e-book while it is on loan.

Read the Mashable blog for detailed instructions on How To: Use Amazon’s New Kindle Lending Feature. This is great news for Kindle users...

OCLC and RLG releases joint document on five year accomplishments

OCLC recently released the document OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership: A Five Year Overview of Accomplishments which highlights some of the issues over the last five years that have had high impact or have changed the topography of the information landscape. The issues are identified under five broad headings with action items and impact listed for each heading. These headings are:

• Reasearch and Information Management


• Mobilizing Unique materials


• Metadata Support and Management


• System-wide organization


• Tools and Solutions

This document can be of value to the library, archive and museum communities, as it not only highlights joint achievements of both organizations but lists a broad array of initiatives, and online publications easily accessible to all.