Why numerical literacy is important.

The falling cats would be great to use with students.

Uses and Misuses of Statistics

A nice and funny speech by RBI DG KC Chakrabarty on the topic. He uses some very funny examples on how people misuse stats. Sample this: In article about cats appeared in The New York Times’...

Find out why an infographic about research needs better research...

Research and an infographic about research « NeverEndingSearch

Wikipedia. Infographics are viral. In my own PLN, one of us discovers an infographic relevant to learning or libraries or research and it's all over the edtech/library world in a matter of minutes...

Google Books digitization slows...

Would this have happened if the legal problems experienced by this project and Hathi Trust had been more easily resolved?

Google Begins to Scale Back Its Scanning of Books From University Libraries - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

By Jennifer Howard. Google has been quietly slowing down its book-scanning work with partner libraries, according to librarians involved with the vast Google Books digitization project. But what that ...

Publishers, Libraries and Copyright.

This meeting summary generated a lot of interesting online comments.

How to Protect Copyright Is Key Topic at Publishers' Meeting - Publishing - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Book reviews.... getting students into the act.

If your online catalog has social media tools, students could also post reviews there...

Crowdsourced Book-Review Project Puts Critiques Online - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The traditional academic-publishing industry moves slowly, and scholarly book reviews can take a long time to get printed. So one group of students is trying to speed up the review process and make it...

Retention of online reading.

I read a lot online. Not sure that I've noticed a major difference. Thoughts, anyone?

Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? | Healthland | TIME.com

I received a Kindle for my birthday, and enjoying "light reading," in addition to the dense science I read for work, I immediately loaded it with mysteries by my favorite authors. But I soon found tha...

Using Google Books to find quotes

This is a great idea! The article has an example with step-by-step instructions.

Can’t Confirm That Quotation? Search Google Books | MindShift

Dear Savvy Searcher,. “We have hit a stumper. A colleague is looking for confirmation that Maya Angelou said the following (along with where and when): 'We all should know that diversity makes for...

Privacy awareness is improving...

Good news from Pew Internet...dandy infographic too!

[Infographic]: We Are Becoming More Privacy-Savvy, at Least According to Pew

The folks at the Pew Internet Life project produced a report last month here that found that people are getting more privacy-savvy on social networks. It is about time, and I am glad to see it. Especi...

The Whys of Pinterest

This is one of the better analyses of Pinterest and its success. I love the concept of Curation-Over-Creation - it's a natural fit for librarians.

The Curation-Over-Creation Trend That Fueled Pinterest's Rapid Growth

Laura Paine has a simple answer when asked why Pinterest exploded in popularity at this particular juncture in Internet history. The former reporter watched her newspaper cut positions, go from being...

A moment of silence for Encyclopedia Britannica print edition...

Sarah Houghton originally shared this post:

Britannica to stop its print editions. Is it really that surprising?

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

Bowing to the competition online, the encyclopedia's publisher said the 2010 edition, a 32-volume set that weighs in at 129 pounds, would be the last.

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What will the iPad generation expect from your library?

The results from this study are a no-brainer.  iPads by themselves aren't enough - you need the right education apps.  We knew this already from using computers.  But it did make me think -  how will the post-PC generation react to library interfaces.   Shudder.   

iPad Kindergarten Research Starts Turning up Results

Maine students showed modest gains in their literacy assessment scores through a combination of systemwide changes.

Fragmented prose as a literary form. Hmmm.

This thoughtful post by Guy Patrick Cunningham is worth pondering.

The Millions : Fragmentary: Writing in a Digital Age

More and more, I read in pieces. So do you. Digital media, in all its forms, is fragmentary. Even the longest stretches of text online are broken up with hyperlinks or other interactive elements (or e...

No, I don't want an app for that...

It looks like mobile users are leaning towards mobile web sites rather than downloadable apps.

TechCrunch | When It Comes To Shopping, Mobile Web Trumps Apps – Led By Amazon, Says Nielsen

There's been lots of debate about whether mobile apps or the web have the upper hand when it comes to making content for smartphones, and when it comes to using it. Some interesting insights from Niel...

Invention of fire....

Great Randy Glasbergen cartoon on Intellectual Property!
http://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/cartoons/toon725.gif

Novellas are selling - over 2 Million Kindle Singles

I wonder if this will lead to a surge in popularity for short stories and the decline of the anthology?

Exclusive: Amazon Has Sold Over Two Million Kindle Singles

When Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) launched the Kindle Singles program a little over a year ago, nobody knew whether there was a market for e-books that are shorter than full-length books but longer than most m...

Good interview about how Google searches.

How Google Search Really Works

Last week, I talked to Google Search lead designer Jon Wiley about the process of designing Google's iconic interface. What goes on behind that white box? For the second part of my interview series wi...

Journal licenses and text mining.

Here's a licensing issue I hadn't thought about before.

http://www.nature.com/news/trouble-at-the-text-mine

Integrating online identity

I set this article aside to digest it. The whole idea of digital identity requires a lot of thought. I'm still trying to decide which parts of me belong in which online social arenas. Vickie the librarian lives in a blog; Vickie the technologist and information sharer is in Google Circles; Vickie the information omnivore surfaces in Google+; Vickie the curator pops up in Pinterest.... I feel like I'm playing Twister with myself.

A Proposal to Fix Online Identity

Facebook's social graph of you isn't you. It's an approximation and an extrapolation based on little clues you've left lying around the Web. Using your Facebook or Google identity gives those services...

How to cite a tweet in MLA format

Thanks to Daniel for sending this my way....

How Do You Cite a Tweet in an Academic Paper? - Atlantic Mobile

The Atlantic covers news and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national, international and life on the official site of The Atlantic Magazine.

Did you know that Brewster Kahle was also creating a Physical Archive?

Preserving physical books in a digital age

As readers of a technology-focused website, you're probably more likely than most to be cheerleading the demise of paper books. Perhaps we shouldn't be so hasty, though — traditional books...

Would you want a soundtrack and sound effects to accompany your ebook reading experience?

 Hmm.

Blowing Up the Book

A new crop of digital books comes loaded with videos, songs, animated shorts and pop-up graphics. Is this the future of publishing?

Pondering the role of book trailers...

Lindesay Irvine from the Guardian discusses the recent trend in video trailers for books. I've seen the "It's a Book" trailer, but not some of the others...

From page to screen: the rise of the video book trailer

Their quality varies wildly, but video trailers for books are proliferating. Do they work? And what are the implications of the technology for the books themselves?

Future of the Internet V survey by Pew and Elon University.

My favorite prediction was by Jessica Clark: "Their handwriting will be horrendous. Their thumbs will ache. Life will go on.”   Yup, been there, have the t-shirt!

Doomed or Lucky? Predicting the Future of the Internet Generation | MindShift

Looking into the proverbial crystal ball, a slew of technology experts weighed in on the Future of the Internet V survey conducted by Pew Research and Elon University, and came up with a predictably m...

Library pricing for eBooks from Random House - ouch!

TechCrunch | Necessary Evil? Random House Triples Prices Of Library E-Books

Random House, the world's largest publisher of the kinds of books you and I read, has made some adjustments to the way it sells e-books to libraries. Notably, they have tripled the price of many title...