Bibliocycle

The digital age has transformed both the way libraries select, acquire, and provide access to our materials collections and the ways in which we instruct our millennial students in how to think critically about information in multiple formats. Libraries have historically been associated with books. But these days it isn’t even easy to know what [...]

[Read more →]

Libraries have always conducted periodic inventories to identify items that have gone missing since the last count. A decade ago we would automatically replace most of the missing items. This year, when I received the results of the summer inventory of the 900′s, (that’s the history collection in “Dewey”) I was able to take a [...]

[Read more →]

I have to admit, sometimes I think nostalgically back to a time when libraries only loaned actual physical books.  The sands have shifted, and that time has passed.  Now everything is more complicated.  What formats do we purchase materials in?  How do we expose those options in the catalog?  What does it mean to participate [...]

[Read more →]

We buy books on spec. Admittedly, it is well-considered and informed speculation, but it is speculation nonetheless. After six months, books are no longer considered “new” and are sent into the stacks. It upsets me when books enter the stacks without ever having circulated, because the odds of them being discovered when they are out [...]

[Read more →]

The OWHL is pleased to announce that we have just added 47,000 full-text electronic books to our collection. These academic titles are provided by ebrary, and are well aligned with our curriculum. Here are some reasons why we are so excited. 1. You can find these books in the OWHL catalog, or you can search [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at a meeting of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium considering the implications for libraries of e-readers and downloadable electronic books. I was pleased to be invited, because it gave me the chance to clarify my thinking about this complicated topic. I spoke about the OWHL’s experience with our [...]

[Read more →]

The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library not only strives to meet the needs of our users, we also aim to anticipate those needs. Consequently, we have been staying abreast of recent developments in electronic books, and cautiously experimenting with e-reader devices and materials. Currently we have two Amazon Kindles and a Barnes and Noble Nook. One [...]

[Read more →]

Last fall, Scott McLeod of the Dangerously Irrelevant blog posted the following rhetorical question: What constitutes a “book” these days? When books become electronic and thus become searchable, hyperlinkable, more accessible to readers with disabilities, and able to embed audio, video, and interactive maps and graphics, at what point do they stop becoming “books” and [...]

[Read more →]

Librarians have known for some time that this day was coming, but still, the announcement last week by the American Chemical Society that it is ceasing the distribution of the print editions of  all but three of its academic journals, and will offer the journals only online, was sobering.  It is hard to argue with [...]

[Read more →]

Because I am studying copyright issues on my sabbatical this year, I have been curious as to how the many complications of this topic might be resolved under a new administration. I was therefore delighted to discover, on the new “whitehouse.gov” site, the following notice of copyright. Copyright Notice Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials [...]

[Read more →]