Library book selection then (1925), now (2013),... in principle it remains unchanged...

• The theory of book selection for public libraries Lionel Roy McColvin (it was based on based on demand and value) (1925)

THE THEORY OF BOOK SELECTION
Lionel McColvin's classic The Theory of Book Selection for Public Libraries (1925) begins with thefollowing words:


"Book selection is the first task of librarianship. It precedes all other processes--cataloguing, classification, or administration--and it is the most important. No matter how thorough and efficient the rest of the work may be, the ultimate value of a library depends upon the way in which the stock has been selected." (McColvin 1925, p. 9).

McColvin starts with the need to have available the materials that will be in demand, not only because of the practical need to have in stock what users ask for, but also because there will be no benefit derived from acquisitions that are not used. No demand means no use and, therefore, no benefit, McColvin argues. But he also argues that a passive adapting of collections to demand would betray the mission of the library.


"If, however, we consider the library as a social force with the power to direct to some extent man's demand, (or, to use the usual expression, if we consider the library as an educationalforce) we will not be content to leave demand our only consideration." (p. 37, emphasis in original).

In brief, McColvin provides a frame with two dimensions--Demand and Value--which correspond to the dispensing and advisory roles of collections noted above. (source)

*More quotes by McColvin are in (p. 261):

Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations by Mohamed Taher and and L.S. Ramaiah. More quotations are here @ Library & Information Science Quotations or here: amazon.com

• Library book selection (Ranganathan series in library science;no.16) Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1966)
• Library Book Selection: (Edition 2) (Ranganathan Series in Library Science) S.R. Ranganathan and M.A. Gopinath (2006)
• Book Selection: Principles and Practice David Spiller (1991)
• Book Selection Then and Now (2013)
• Alive and Well: Revisiting Sable's "Death of Book Selection"
• Some problems in book selection policies and practices in ...
• A Comparison between the Book Selection Policy Decisions

Ten of the Best Web 2.0 Tools for Cybrarians, by Cybrarian’s Web!

Ps. Given below is the list. Full description of each tool is at the author's site, click here: http://cybrariansweb.com/links/

Incidentally, there is no date, hence not sure if this is a recent list or some of this is already gone with the wind (no pun indeed; just look at how often Google products vanish...). Wish the author could have added one liner to each of these to indicate how libraries (not just librarians as individuals) can use each Tool!!!

• Cloud Magic - for all your personal data
• ePubBud - for aspiring authors of children’s ebooks
• Google Drive - provides users with ‘cloud space’ to store and access files from anywhere
• Issuu - free digital publishing platform 
• Infogr.am - opportunity to create pictorial graphs to promote current services.
• Jumpshare - file sharing service
• Poll Everywhere - offers a unique way to create real-time audience responses for events
• Text2MindMap - allows users to create customized mindmaps directly on the website
• TodaysMeet - create chat rooms
• Weebly - ‘drag and drop’ website builder

2013 School Library Survey finds library resourcing linked to literacy

The 2013 Australian School Library Survey has revealed a positive relationship between a school’s literacy results and the library’s resourcing levels.  Release from Softlink Australia

Extract:

The survey found schools with high national average NAPLAN reading literacy scores reported higher levels of library funding and staffing, while schools with lower scores had lower levels.  These results echoed previous surveys.

A summary of other key survey findings included: 

•81 percent of all school library budgets either remained unchanged or declined in 2013

•A higher percentage of Government school libraries experienced budget decreases than Catholic 

or Independent school libraries

•28 percent of schools reported a decrease in library staffing in 2013 with 63 percent of all schools surveyed stating that there had been no change

•More than a quarter of respondent schools have purchased eBooks in the past year (28 percent) and 55 percent of respondents indicated they will “definitely” or “most probably” purchase eBooks within the next 12 months

•44 percent of teacher librarians said half or more of their student population owned a personal mobile device (iPod, iPad, smart phone or other tablet)  Continue reading

On the same shelf:

• Australian School Library Association www.asla.org.au › Professional learning‎

Integrated Library Systems (ILS) - A reading list

Integrated Library Systems: Planning, Selecting, and Implementing              
Desiree Webber and Andrew Peters (2010)

Reviews:

It provides solid instruction in guiding a librarian through this process, including systematic and detailed step-by-step instructions on the practical aspects of choosing an ILS; working with the vendor; budgeting and time-line planning; and implementation and training.  Booklist"… this book tackles the whole process and cites additional resources that can be used. Recommended for librarians seeking to automate for the first time." Library Journal

• The Readwell Library, Utopia University, ILS Vendor Assessment
• Innovative Interfaces vs. Polaris Library Systems. LIS489: Social and Professional Aspects, by Julie Goldman April 2013
• The Next Generation Integrated Library System: A Promise Fulfilled? Yongming Wang and Trevor A. Dawes, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | SEPTEMBER 2012 [Yongming Want (wangyo@tcnj.edu) is Systems Librarian for The College of New Jersey Library, Ewing Township, and Trevor Dawes (tdawes@princeton.edu) is Access Services & Circulation, Librarian, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton, New Jersey]
• Tennant, Roy. "Dawn of a new era." Library Journal 15 Feb. 2007: 27. Information Science and Library Issues Collection. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
• New Models, Core Systems. By: Breeding, Marshall, Library Journal, 03630277, 4/15/2010, Vol. 135, Issue 6 [Marshall Breeding (staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/breeding) is Director for Innovative Technology and Research, Vanderbilt University Library, Nashville]   
• Framework for Strategic Purchasing of an Integrated Library System ...
• Optimising your Integrated Library System (ILS) | Services to Schools
• Library Technology Guides: ILS Turnover for 2012  
• Integrated Library System Analysis: Polaris | Leigh-Anne Yacovelli ...
• [PPT] Lesson 3. How do you evaluate integrated library systems?  
• SirsiDynix: SYMPHONY CASE STUDIES
• Kline, J., & Barlow, D. (2006). Integrated Ecommerce in the Library: A Software Development Partnership Between Innovative Interfaces and the Westerville Public Library, Ohio. Journal Of Library Administration, 44(3/4), 137-155. 
• SirsiDynix Introduces New Integrated Library System by Vicki Nesting Public Libraries, 11/2007, Volume 46, Issue 6, p. 69
• Murvosh, Marta. "Customized user design: designing to fit your community's needs." Library Journal 15 Sept. 2012
• Khurshid, Zahiruddin, and Saleh Al-Baridi. "Symphony: SirsiDynix's Flagship Integrated Library System: A Horizon User's Perspective." Computers in Libraries 29.7 (2009): 6-10
• Interoperability Requirements for Integrated Library Systems, developed by Saskatchewan Libraries; 
• Ontario Public Library’s Guidelines; 
• Standards & Best Practices For Public Libraries in Alberta
• The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries 
  Judith A. Siess
• Computers in Libraries: AN INTRODUCTION FOR LIBRARY TECHNICIANS (Resources for Library Technicians) 
  Katie Wilson
• Information Systems and Technology For The Non-Information Systems Executive: An Integrated Resource Management Guide fo 
  Jae K. Shim
• A Guide to Service Desk Concepts 
  Donna Knapp
• Technology for Small and One-Person Libraries (Lita Guide) 
  Rene J. Erlandson 

What are Primary and Secondary Sources -- A Select Sample

Library guides (LibGuides Community Site) provide resources to understand the question of what is primary (original work) and what is secondary (review, criticism, etc.). A sample is given here to help a beginner and anyone who needs a lead:

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES   Source: http://selu.libguides.com
Primary Source	Secondary Sources
Novel, poem	Literary criticism
Diary, autobiography	Biography
Letters, historical documents, oral testimony	Historical Commentary
Newspaper report	Editorial
Raw data from questionnaires	Social Science Article
Observation/experiment	Scientific article
Television show/film	Review
Interview	Case study

"A primary source is any work that offers ORIGINAL intellectual content: artistic works, diaries, newpaper reports witnessed by a participant from the time of the event, memoirs, speeches, government reports & statistics, artifacts.

Primary sources generally serve as foundation material for a particular subject area. They are the result of someone doing primary research, which involves collecting raw data. Primary sources allow researchers to analyze the data or object for themselves in order to come up with alternate theories and opinions.

Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources. In other words, when a writer looks at a primary document, and produces a work that tries to make sense of what he or she finds, the result is a secondary study or secondary source." Adapted from:

Kirszner, Laurie G. The Holt Handbook. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2002.

 Source: http://selu.libguides.com

Samples from Library Guides:

• Primary vs Secondary Sources - Library and Information Science -- uiuc.libguides.com
• Format of Primary Sources - LibGuides at CSU Los Angeles
• Primary Sources - Saint Leo University LibGuides 
• Introduction to Archival Research - LibGuides @CSU   
• Primary vs. Secondary Sources - Primary Sources 
• Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources - Archives at Institute of ... American Indian Arts
• Examples of Sources by Academic Discipline - Primary Sources vs Secondary Sources...
• Primary Sources on the Web - Primary and Secondary Sources ...
• Finding Primary Sources in Online Databases - Primary Sources vs . Secondary Sources.
• Finding Primary Sources on the Web - Primary Sources vs ... Secondary 
• Secondary sources - Primary Sources Quick Guide - LibGuides 
• Find more Google

Five Fun Facts You May Not Know About Libraries, Neil Schulman, knovelblogs.com

Courtesy: New Library Fun Facts Infographics, by Stephen Abram and  Judith Siess

 

Culture and Technology - A select annotated list

PS. This is a continuously updated list, last updated Oct 10, 2013.

• Culture and Technology
  Andrew Murphie --  It' brings forward debates over the marriage of culture and technology, giving an insight to technology & culture, as synchronization of two domains (viz., people and machines).
• Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society) 3rd (third) Edition by Landow, George P. [2006]   -- "Challenges the reader... Because it invites (and nearly requires) readers to place themselves in more than one position: as a student of communication theory, as a student of computer science, as a student of academic publishing, or as a student of literature."—Paul Baker, Education PR Blog [source]
•  Culture and Technology
  Jennifer Daryl Slack
• The Culture of Technology
  Arnold Pacey
• Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
  Neil Postman -- "chronicles our transformation into a Technopoly: a society that no longer merely uses technology as a support system but instead is shaped by it--with radical consequences for the meanings of politics, art, education, intelligence, and truth."
• Technology and Culture
  Allen Batteau 
• Critical Communication Theory: Power, Media, Gender, and Technology (Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture)
  Sue Curry Jansen -- "Critical theorist, feminist, and censorship expert Sue Curry Jansen brings a fresh perspective to contemporary communication inquiry. Jansen engages two key questions at the heart of a critical politics of communication: What do we know? And how do we know it? The questions are not unique to our era, she notes, but our responses to them are our own. Looking at issues of globalization, science, politics, gender, social inequality, and other social formations that shape our world, this insightful book advocates a new agenda not only for communication research, but also for the writing_and language_that comes out of it."
• Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (science.culture)
  Thomas P. Hughes
• Culture: Leading Scientists Explore Societies, Art, Power, and Technology
  John Brockman
• Cinema and Technology: Cultures, Theories, Practices
  Bruce Bennett -- "Rather than describing a technological "crisis," or separating the technological and aesthetic halves of the cinema, they present a manifold, expansive reconsideration of the life of technologies in the cultures, theories and practices of cinematic production and consumption."
• The Body in Culture, Technology and Society (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)
  Chris Shilling-- "Moreover, as a framework [this monograph] provides a genuinely new and fertile way of reconsidering not just classical sociology but contemporary  forms as well" [source: Sport, Education & Society @ Amazon.com]
• Gender and Sexuality in Online Game Cultures: Passionate Play (Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality)
  Jenny Sundén -- "is a book about female players and their passionate encounters with the online game World of Warcraft and its player cultures. It takes seriously women’s passions in games, and as such draws attention to questions of pleasure in and desire for technology. "
• Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity (Film and Culture Series)
  James Lastra
• Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia (History and Foundations of Information Science)
  Joseph Michael Reagle Jr.--"Despite the social unease over its implications for individual autonomy, institutional authority, and the character (and quality) of cultural products, Wikipedia's good-faith collaborative culture has brought us closer than ever to a realization of the century-old pursuit of a universal encyclopedia. "
• Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life
  Gerard Goggin
• The Architecture of the Visible: Technology and Urban Visual Culture (Technologies: Studies in Culture & Theory)
  Graham MacPhee 
• Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia (History and Society in the Islamic World)
  Richard Tapper -- "The contributors address the history, originality, variety and sophistication of traditional science, technology and material culture in the Middle East and Central Asia, their influence on the history of Europe and the West, and the threat posed by modern Western technologies."
• Indian Thought Between Tradition and the Culture of Technology
  David L. Johnson -- "He argues that the solution lies not in dismissing the culture of technology but in incorporating it within the fabric of tradition, so that India can keep pace with the time. He tackles the problem by delving deep into the intracies of the matter of tradition and technology; and spells out the changes required in our traditional way of looking at things. The book is very contemporary in its approach and reflects a rare kind of optimism about Indias potentialities in facing the problem."
• Transference, Tradition, Technology: Native New Media Exploring Visual and Digital Culture
  Steven Loft -- "Transference, Tradition, Technology explores Canadian Aboriginal new media and references the work of artists within a political, cultural and aesthetic milieu. The book constructs a Native art history relating to these disciplines, one that is grounded in the philosophical and cosmological foundations of Aboriginal concepts of community and identity within the rigour of contemporary arts discourse. Approachable in nature but scholarly in content, this book is the first of its kind."
• Recharge Your Library Programs with Pop Culture and Technology:: Connect with Today's Teens
  Linda D. Behen    -- "Today's school libraries need to evolve and meet the needs of 21st-century students—the instruction, programming, and library services must be relevant to today's learners. Additionally, the interactions between educators and the students are what make the critical difference in the students' learning, and turn the library and classroom into places where they will find, assimilate, experience, and understand information. This book provides practical strategies for using pop culture and technology trends to connect with easily distracted middle and high school students and hold their attention."
  
• Culture, Tradition and Technology: The Role of Library and Information Science Schools as Integrative Forces, Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita (Harare Polytechnic University School of Library Information Sciences, Zimbabwe) and Ismail Abdullahi (North Carolina Central University, USA), IGI
• Culture and Technology: A Mutual-Shaping Approach T. Herdin (University of Salzburg, Austria) IGI
• Science, Technology, & Culture (Resources) -- "This sub-page includes a selection of resources on science, medicine, technology, and cultural-studies/historical approaches to science designed for humanists interested in the relation between sci-tech and society. The emphasis is on materials that reflect upon, historicize, critique, collect, exhibit, or otherwise mediate (and mediatize) sci-tech rather than on scientific research per se."     

On the same shelf:

• Library Guides: Communication, Culture and Information Technology @ Sheridan College
• Library Guides: Culture, Art & Technology @ University of California San Diego
• Library Guides: Science, Technology & Society @ Purchase College, SUNY
• Library Guides:  Critical Theory for Library and Information Science @ Sandbox for Library Schools at Springshare,  San Jose State University SLIS
• Critical Theory for Library and Information Science: Exploring the Social from Across the Disciplines (Library and Information Science Text)
  Gloria J. Leckie
• Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods
  Maria Accardi
• Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies
  Norman K. Denzin
• The Economics of Information (International Library of Critical Writings in Economics) (Vol.1)
  David K. Levine
• Participatory Activist Research in the Globalised World: Social Change Through the Cultural Professions: 26 (Explorations of Educational Purpose)
  lisahunter

Splunk Seeks Non-Geeks with Platform Upgrade, Gives Away Storm to Developers

Splunk Seeks Non-Geeks with Platform Upgrade, Gives Away Storm to Developers

KRISTEN NICOLE | OCTOBER 1ST 

SiliconANGLE (blog)