Amazon -where is it going?

I just realized differences between the german and the english Amazon:
At www.amazon.co.uk you can tag the product and upload a video review whereas in the german Amazon you are able to see the discussion topics with the most frequencies right below the product description.
Why are there such great differences? Is it due to differences in interests and/ or habits?

the digital desaster (?)

PM is writing about the cultural heritage we are obviously loosing. - well, I wouldn't say this. Okay, many data is lost, but are we loosing the cultural heritage?
Several people think so, thats why an archive is built up in the Internet.

But I would see it with the eyes of Umlauf, who was recently saying that this is a time, where more is published than ever, more books are read than ever ...

We will see...

The possibilities of Library 2.0

Building Academic Library 2.0 - Association of Christian Librarians

From: librarianmer, 1 week ago

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Preconference for Association of Christian Librarians Conference, June 9, 2008.


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Is your library in facebook?

I am really surprised how easily you can set up a business or non-profit site in facebook!

You only have to go to http://www.facebook.com/business/?pages=#/pages/create.php and choose the category.
Then you upload the logo, put in additional information about your institution and its nearly done!
After that your insttiution is part of the social network facebook: your institution is where the users are! That could be very surprising for your customers. ;) But the best of that: Your customers are able to add your facebook page to their favourite sites by "Become a Fan".

If it's not in the Internet it does not exist

"If it's not in the Internet it does not exist": that's the most common notion among Net savvies -and even among library users.


Unfortunately, libraries do not make any "noise" online: Users don't feel the library! Users don't perceive the value libraries add to information. That's no wonder: the OPAC sucks, the information architecture is complicated...

• 1. Librarians have to start to set the information into a context: via combining more metadata, via relating recources, via visualizing the subject terms etc.

• 2. Catalogs have to be opened up to other systems



• 3. Libraries have to go where the users are

• 4. Libraries can only serve the users if they really KNOW the specific needs of the users - so the librarians have not to talk TO them but WITH them



• 5. Libraries have to allow users to participate ... in order to design the library's future together

Why is it so important to develop a library 2.0 and what is critical about it? (discussed @ Bibcamp 2008)

Until now libraries were not forced to concentrate on reaching online communities. But within the last few years opportunities increased to build communities and share information within networks.

The question is: Will the library become unimportant in the future?
Several librarians don't think so (and we have to do so ;) ), e.g. Jochum: He (as several American LIS professionals, too) is the opinion that the abundance of virtuality is throwing us back to the analogue world.

But nevertheless we have to concentrate on online services and on serving Internet savvies. In this context the word "library2.0" evolved. But what is behind the word "library2.0"? What does it mean in detail?
Heller is describing it in the foreword to the "library2.0"-Issue of BuB (Vol 31, 2007, Issue 2). I only want to concentrate on a few things: library2.0 is about interaction with customers, participation of users especially in the regard of user-generated content, and so on.
Unfortunately, "library2.0" is used too much so that it will be screwed up in a few years. "Library2.0" is a buzzword. Therefore, librians have to find a better word that is decribing the root of the matter. Particularly, because "library2.0" causes confusion: Is "library2.0" an extension of "library1.0"? Or is "library2.0" displacing "library1.0"? In this regard: Is everything of the traditional library to change??
The core functions remain. Librarians always were distributors of information -but now librarians are not the only gateways to information any more: (Fortunately?) they lost their role as gatekeepers.
Moreover the word "library2.0" is not the correct one because it implies that librarians have to upgrade themselves to stay alive. In the sense of keeping up-to-date it's right but to communicate this to "conservative" librarians gives them a negative feeling (technostress).
But it's clear that librarians have to change -or else they are not able to change the library : Libraries should serve as windows to the multifaceted landscapes of the information world.

Matthias Steffens @ Bibcamp2008

Gemeinsame Literaturverwaltung am Beispiel von refbase

From: msteffens, 18 hours ago

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Web-basierte Literaturverwaltung mit refbase - Bespiele für die Integration mit anderen Tools durch Unterstützung von APIs & Standards


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Lambert Heller @ Bibcamp 2008

Was können Bibliotheken für Blogger tun?

From: lambo, 2 days ago

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