by Public Libraries on February 8, 2012
The National Science Foundation awarded a grant last year to digitize millions of photographs of insects into a national database. The idea being that researchers and other interested parties could access this database to view insects quickly and easily.
Scientists at a college in Illinois give an example of a how the database is being built. The Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) is part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois and is home to one of the largest collections of insects in the country. The insects are currently stored in little drawers with information about each specimen handwritten on a label attached to the drawer. There are over 7 million insects at INHS with some of the oldest added to the collection 150 years ago.
The specimens are carefully stored in a climate controlled environment and some can be quite fragile. High-resolution photos will be taken of each of the specimens from a variety of angles. The images will then be stored in a searchable database along with the notes written on the label.
The INHS digitization project is just part of a larger database. A site called InvertNet is where users can go to search for and view the images of the insects. InvertNet will give access to insects and their history that was previously only available to a very small number of people. The first goal is to provide universal access to 22 collections in the midwestern United States with a total of 55 million digitized specimens. Of course the platform is designed to be universal and could theoretically contain digital images of every specimen on the planet.
InvertNet is a perfect example of the benefits of a standardized digitization project. They are combining insects and other specimens that are stored in different places and that are owned by different organizations. The are bringing images and searchable data on all of those specimens into a common repository with standardized storage parameters. Anyone in the world will be able to search for and view the images. The servers that the database is stored on will be scalable, redundant, backed up, and secure.
This project demonstrates the advantages of a National Digital Public Library. Such a library would essentially do what InvertNet is doing. It would combine digital collections from everywhere in the United States and store them in a standardized, scalable, redundant, backed up, and secure database. Such a library would store our cultural heritage and our history in a searchable, digital format that could be accessed from anywhere.
Opening up valuable data to everyone in the world is one of the greatest benefits of the Internet. It also happens to be one of the main reasons we have public libraries. Isn’t it time we had a National Digital Public Library of America?
by Public Libraries on February 7, 2012
Ever wish you had access to a super genius through your mobile phone? Someone that could reference gigantic databases of information and find what you’re looking for quickly? Well, now you can. It’s a service called “Siri” “Text a Librarian” and it’s available on every mobile phone in Illinois.
The Illinois State Library has launched a new texting service that allows users to request information from library staff via text message. Anyone that can send and receive text messages can now send one to the Illinois State Library. Library staff will read through the messages as they come and try to respond with quick, informative answers.
Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White hopes that the texting service will be just another way for the library to provide information to its patrons. Library staff could already be reached via e-mail, phone, fax or in person.
There is no charge for the service other than the standard message and data fees charged by the mobile service provider.
The service is intended for quick reference questions that can be answered in short text messages. Patrons are advised to use other means of communication if the question they have requires a long answer.
Most librarians have an ALA-accredited master’s degree as well as a great deal of knowledge and experience in responding to patrons’ requests for information. All that education and information navigation is now available through a simple text message.
It’ll be interesting to see what the response times are with the texting service. Usually when you text someone, you expect a response rather quickly. I can easily see this text message service getting hit with a ton of spam or joke text messages. If the response times are slow, it could result in a bunch of disappointed users.
by Public Libraries on February 7, 2012
Net sales from digital products (ebooks and audio books) in the US climbed 130% last year at Hachette Book Group (HBG). Lagardère SCA, the parent of HBG, released financial results today that provided some highlights of the book publisher’s performance.
HBG’s overall sales in the US were up 12.8% in the fourth quarter of 2011. This is impressive given that Borders closed and that ebooks generate less revenue than print books. HBG’s ebooks now account for 20% of all adult trade sales in the US.
So, it looks like overall revenues from book publishing are still going up while ebook sales are skyrocketing. This is pretty amazing given that ebooks cost less than print books.
by Public Libraries on February 6, 2012
It took Amazon 96 days to grow the list of ebooks in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to include over 100,000 titles. As of this writing, there are now 100,002 ebook titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
When they started the program way back when on November 3, 2011, there were just a little over 5,000 ebooks in it. So they have added almost 1,000 titles per day. That is absolutely amazing.
By comparison, here are the number of ebook titles at some popular public libraries. The New York Public Library has 23,767 ebooks titles. The Los Angeles Public Library has 11,869 ebooks available through OverDrive in Kindle format. The Boston Public Library has 8,104 ebook titles. The Seattle Public Library (close to Amazon headquarters) has 34,463 ebook titles available.
Amazon launched a program called KDP Select on December 8, 2011 that added independent and self-published ebooks to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Self-published authors have been adding their ebooks through KDP Select like crazy since the program launched. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has a large number of self-published ebooks but it also has many current and former New York Times Bestsellers as well. The Hunger Games series from Suzanne Collins have been the most popular ebooks in the program since it launched.
Authors that loan out their ebooks through KDP Select have been rewarded very well by Amazon. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library loaned out over 295,000 ebooks in just three weeks during December of 2011. Participating authors saw their royalties increase over 400 percent from the previous month. Surprisingly, authors also saw sales of their ebooks increase if they loaned them out for free through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
Anyone that subscribes to Amazon Prime for $79 per year and owns a Kindle can borrow one ebook per month for free from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Analysts estimate that Amazon sold over 5 million Kindle Fire tablets and several million Kindle ereaders last quarter. So it’s safe to assume that the Amazon Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is only going to get more popular in the coming months.
