Archive for February, 2010

Presentations from Repositories and the Cloud Meeting

Posted by Charles Bailey on February 28th, 2010

Presentations from the recent Repositories and the Cloud meeting, which was sponsored by Eduserv and JISC, and are now available.

Presentations included "Cloud-Based Projects at Belfast e-Science Centre," "Cloud Services for Repositories", "DuraCloud—Open Technologies and Services for Managing Durable Data in the Cloud," and "EPrints and the Cloud."

Read more about it at "Slides and Observations from “Repositories in the Cloud” London."

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Head, Library Systems and Web Services at Southwestern University

Posted by Charles Bailey on February 28th, 2010

The A. Frank Smith, Jr. Library Center at Southwestern University is recruiting a Head, Library Systems and Web Services

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position serves as the system administrator for the library’s integrated library system (ILS), and also as webmaster for the library’s website. Responsible for library technology planning, support, and communication. Provides support for technology applications in all library departments as needed. Maintains an in-depth understanding of technological trends and developments affecting academic libraries through a commitment to ongoing professional development. Works collaboratively and creatively with librarians, library staff, Audiovisual Services, ITS, NITLE, and the university webmaster.

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“Filtering, Piracy Surveillance, and Disobedience”

Posted by Charles Bailey on February 28th, 2010

Sonia Katyal, Professor of Law at the Fordham University School of Law, has self-archived "Filtering, Piracy Surveillance, and Disobedience" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

There has always been a cyclical relationship between the prevention of piracy and the protection of civil liberties. While civil liberties advocates previously warned about the aggressive nature of copyright protection initiatives, more recently, a number of major players in the music industry have eventually ceded to less direct forms of control over consumer behavior. As more aggressive forms of consumer control, like litigation, have receded, we have also seen a rise in more passive forms of consumer surveillance. Moreover, even as technology has developed more perfect means for filtering and surveillance over online piracy, a number of major players have opted in favor of “tolerated use,” a term coined by Professor Tim Wu to denote the allowance of uses that may be otherwise infringing, but that are allowed to exist for public use and enjoyment. Thus, while the eventual specter of copyright enforcement and monitoring remains a pervasive digital reality, the market may fuel a broad degree of consumer freedom through the toleration or taxation of certain kinds of activities.

This Article is meant largely to address and to evaluate these shifts by drawing attention to the unique confluence of these two important moments: the growth of tolerated uses, coupled with an increasing trend towards more passive forms of piracy surveillance in light of the balance between copyright enforcement and civil liberties. The content industries may draw upon a broad definition of disobedience in their campaigns to educate the public about copyright law, but the market’s allowance of DRM-free content suggests an altogether different definition. The divide in turn between copyright enforcement and civil liberties results in a perfect storm of uncertainty, suggesting the development of an even further division between the role of the law and the role of the marketplace in copyright enforcement and innovation, respectively.

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Digital Library of Appalachia Project Director

Posted by Charles Bailey on February 28th, 2010

The Appalachian College Association is recruiting a Digital Library of Appalachia Project Director (two-year contract consultant position).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Library of Appalachia Project Director is a two-year grant-funded position working within the Appalachian College Association (ACA) that is responsible for upgrading and enhancing the Digital Library of Appalachia (DLA). The ACA is a consortium of 36 private institutions serving the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The DLA provides online access to archival and historical materials related to the culture of the southern and central Appalachian region. The contents of the DLA are drawn from special collections of ACA member institutions.

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OCLC Research has released Over, Under, Around, and Through: Getting Around Barriers to EAD Implementation.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This report frames obstacles that archivists have experienced adopting Encoded Archival Description (EAD). It also suggests pathways to help archivists get out of the ruts, around the roadblocks and on the road to success.

Written by Michele Combs from Syracuse University, Mark A. Matienzo from Yale University, Lisa Spiro from Rice University and Merrilee Proffitt from OCLC Research, the objective of the report is to communicate EAD's value as a key element of successful archival information systems and help archivists overcome potential barriers to its implementation. This work is an output of the Barriers to Using EAD project undertaken by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership.

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Apple rumors: A cheaper iPhone, and mysteries of the iPad

Posted by Chris Meadows on February 28th, 2010

A couple of recent Apple stories of note.

First, a Morgan Stanley analyst predicts Apple will introduce a new iPhone model with lower total cost of ownership (both hardware and service plan price) and new, possibly gesture-based functionality. There are no details or even guesses at what the new price points or functionality might be.

Of course, the “new functionality” in general is a no-brainer; Apple always introduces new functionality on its products with each update. And the gesture-based stuff might be seen as a byproduct of whatever new gestures the iPad comes with, I suppose.

Needless to say, a lower total cost of ownership would make iPhones even more attractive, and thus put them in even more hands, which therefore means even more screens on which e-books could be read.

The other story has to do with the iPad. At Computerworld, Mike Elgan lists fifteen “mysteries” of the iPad—potentially important bits of information we still don’t yet have. While many of them have to do with hardware matters, such as whether there will be new gestures or what the blank button on the keyboard dock is for, there are a few e-book and e-magazine issues, too.

For example, Elgan wonders whether Apple’s infamous app store censorship will spread to TV, movies, and magazines, or if it is possible Apple might drop the app store censorship instead. He also wonders if the Kindle iPad app will have the access to newspapers and magazines that the Kindle iPhone app currently does not. And he asks whether some of the Internet content we are used to getting for free might move behind a paywall.

These are, of course, good questions—and we may not find the answer for another month.

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Quick Note: Dear Author’s ebook survey results – sort of

Posted by Paul Biba on February 28th, 2010

Screen shot 2009-11-05 at 8.58.43 AM.pngRemember the Dear Author survey I suggested you take? Well the results are in, but are not very useful

Dear Author will let you download the raw data or download a set of Powerpoint slides, but they are not giving us any hint of the results on their blog. Personally, I don’t need to fool with data and I certainly don’t want a bunch of Powerpoint slides on my Mac that I will have to download extra software to read.

Pity – waste of time to have filled it out.

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Amazon lanza Kindle para la BlackBerry

Posted by ediciona on February 28th, 2010
Amazon acaba de lanzar (18/02/2010) el Kindle para Blackberry, una aplicación gracias a la cual los usuarios de Blackberry podrán acceder a los libros digitales disponibles para Kindle. Entre otros, podrán comprar libros, leerlos (a todo color), navegar por el catálogo y sincronitzar las anotaciones, los marcadores y la última página entre diferentes dispositivos. La [...]

Astérix y Obélix, mucho más que un cómic para niños (IV)

Posted by Miguel Ortiz on February 28th, 2010

asterix_-_cast.jpg

Un collage de personajes pintorescos

El primer álbum se llamó ‘Astérix el Galo’ y el nombre del bajito y rubio protagonista aparece en el título de 19 de las 35 entregas, mientras que el de su rellenito y pelirrojo compañero apenas lo hace en tres ocasiones (sólo una más que el de César) y son 13 las ediciones en las que no sale ninguno en el título, en las que la única referencia a otro personaje de la aldea aparece en ‘El combate de los jefes’. Como todos sabemos, las aventuras generalmente se centran en la “concomitante y oximórica” pareja, pero la importancia del resto de los personajes va adquiriendo peso a lo largo de la colección. A continuación, comentaré brevemente la figura y el papel de algunos de los actores más destacados de la magna obra de Goscinny y Uderzo, obviando a Astérix y Obélix que, siendo la pareja protagonista, es bien conocida por todos:

Los habitantes de la Aldea Gala

Lo primero que hay que señalar es que el poblado de los galos no tiene otro nombre sino Aldea Gala. Mientras que todas las demás localizaciones tienen un origen real (Roma, Lutecia, Alejandría, Londinum, Hispalis…), de la aldea de irreductibles galos sólo conocemos su ubicación, en Armórica, noroeste galo.
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‘Chocky’ de John Wyndham

Posted by Fausto Beneroso on February 28th, 2010

Portada de 'Chocky'

Os voy a hablar de una historia de amor. Y es que lo que me ha pasado a mí con Chocky del escritor británico John Wyndham, no se puede definir de una forma más exacta. Fue verlo e inmediatamente sentí la necesidad de leerlo. Como en estos casos no suelo pensármelo mucho y no pongo muchos problemas, pues eso es lo que hice, leerlo y descubrir que estaba ante un libro fantástico. En esta ocasión mi amor sí estaba justificado…

Este libro ha hecho que me sienta como cuando era pequeñín y leía mis primeras novelas de ciencia ficción, con ese asombro inocente y absoluto que me produjeron en su día obras como Un mundo feliz de Aldous Huxley o Clones de Michael Marshall Smith. No obstante, Chocky fue escrito en el año 1968 y destila por cada una de sus páginas el mejor sabor clásico de este género, haciéndonos disfrutar en todo momento.

‘Chocky’ nos narra la vida del pequeño Matthew Gore, un niño (adoptado) de once años que empieza a tener un comportamiento un poco particular. Así, la historia comienza cuando su padre le escucha hablar aparentemente solo, no hay nadie con él y todo parece indicar que esta manteniendo un diálogo de lo más profundo, aunque no se escuche qué opina o dice la otra parte. Será así como los padres lleguen a la conclusión de que se trata de un amigo imaginario de Matthew, cosa para lo que está ya un poco mayorcito. Su hermana pequeña tuvo uno, Piff, y todavía recuerdan lo que costó que se fuera.

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