Articles on accessibility & mobile devices

Earlier this year the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a study titled ‘Americans living with disability and their technology profile’ highlighting another aspect of how the digital divide applies to those with special needs.

So today I was heartened to see USA Today publish this article:

Adapting to the iPad, called education’s ‘equalizer’

Over the years, public libraries have taken on various roles to address the digital divide, both to help provide access to technology and to help develop technology skills. With the prevalence of mobile access, what’s next for public libraries in this arena?

Which should be used to boost sales?

A recent study found that ebooks can boost print sales. Worthy of a study for sure, but in reality when the future is ebooks and electronic content, this would seem to be the wrong tactic. Why not offer free print books to increase ebook sales?

From the Digital Reader: Study shows that free ebooks boost print sales

A potential 30% minimum bump in sales would probably be welcome to the publishing industry. I’m all for a thriving industry that can support more authors and release more titles. Yet, to adopt this wide scale and expend great efforts to drive print sales with a tantalizing free ebook offer would negatively affect the perception of ebooks. Ebooks as weaker in sales and perfect freebies = perhaps profitable, surely not sustainable?

And, which is better for libraries?

Sometimes I have more questions than answers.

Summer/Fall Professional Development Opportunity

23 Things for Professional Development is a free online programme open to information professionals at all stages of their career, in all types of role, and anywhere across the world.

This really interests me and could fill in some gaps. May have to drop in for week 2!

Good luck to all the participants!

Why Not?

Operating with a stance of “Why not?” can be the perfect antidote to the beguiling, ever-tempting “No.”

“No” brings things to a halt, FAST. “No” reacts, rejects and forbids. “No” closes the discussion before the award-winning million-dollar idea can be shared.

Let’s consider some business uses for the “Why not?” approach. Why not..

• Decide to throw “Because we’ve always done it this way” to the wind?
• Switch gears mid-project to do the right thing?
• Try a pilot project with a new technology?
• Revisit the idea next week, next month, or next quarter?
• Invite others to the table and give them a chance to speak freely on any topic?

There will always, always be solid reasons not to do some thing. Why not feed optimism and hope, respond less cautiously, and change your entire operation?

Moxie Librarian News

The Moxie Librarian will be taking a break from blogging this summer and hopes to resume posts in September.

I have completed the hcplc=Lib 2.0 training program, the original purpose for this blog.

Thank you for reading and a happy summer to all!

100 Free Library 2.0 Webinars and Tutorials

100 Free Library 2.0 Webinars and Tutorials is a new list of 2.0 resources from the College@Home blog. Take a look!

National Hurricane Center RSS Feeds

Hurricane season has arrived. Why not stay informed of storm activity by subscribing to one of the RSS feeds offered by the National Hurricane Center (NHC)? RSS feeds are offered for the Atlantic (including Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico) and the Eastern Pacific. In addition, there are per-storm feeds available which correspond to specific advisories issued for active storms. (The NHC offers e-mail advisories, too.)

A full list of all RSS feeds from the National Weather Service is available here.

The Moxie Librarian Avatar

As part of the gaming lesson, I played games that did not require creating an avatar. But I decided to create one anyway.

So…I present to you the Moxie Librarian avatar:

 Aka, well, let’s call her Moxie for short.

Online Gaming

Let me reveal, I am not much of a gamer myself and prefer other methods for learning and entertainment. (I am quite intrigued by Rock Star though I have not played it yet - if you are hosting something in the Tampa Bay area, let me know!)

For this library 2.0 lesson on online gaming, I headed to my library’s Just for Kids page and explored some of the online games available to the younger folks. This was actually a nice trip down memory lane. I landed back in the first grade, where I first played computer games at school. Just like in the past, the games available from the library’s website are semi-educational though the graphics have certainly improved!

Though I may not be passionate about Dance Dance Revolution or World of Warcraft, I support gaming in libraries.  For many libraries, gaming is another means to carrying out a library’s mission and serving the community. Regardless of popular perception, libraries are not just a place for books and DVDs. Libraries provide connections to information in many forms, and will continue to share this information as long as there is a need. Functions such as collection, preservation and organization assist tremendously in this process, but so do less formal methods and interactions.

ThinkFree

This morning I took a moment to play with a new tool: ThinkFree.

Overall, this is a fine product. I found the design especially appealing compared to other similar products such as Google Docs and Zoho. With ThinkFree, users can create, edit, share and publish documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The online version has a separate area for personal work (My Office) and for collaborative work (Workspace). Also, one convenient feature is the option to save a document as a PDF. I am starting to use online office tools more and more, and this is a tool I will definitely use again.