Archive for June, 2006
Take a look at some prize winning flexible electronic display devises developed for a competition sponsored by Plastic Logic (a plastic electronics company). The winner – Turnover - is an innovative e-reader that uses two traditional aspects of reading – turning the page and folding the corner – to exploit the physical capabilities of flexible displays, while humanizing the experience of reading an electronic book or newspaper. The screen that is rotated to the back refreshes the next page during the turning action, thereby stimulating a whole book or magazine with only two pages.
June 28th, 2006
Salem-South Lyon District Library and Loutit District Library are now live with MLC Digital Libraries!Â
Fourteen public libraries of all sizes now share in this growing collection of downloadable audio and eBooks.
Since the site went live, over 4,200 library patrons have accessed the site with an average of more than 200 NEW patrons every month. There have been over 19,800 checkouts (with a high of 1,455 in May) of the 1200+ titles available.
June 26th, 2006
Here’s some good news about copyright law and music! Award Winning Music (AWM) now offers royalty-free music to educational institutions (K-12, colleges, universities) for educational purposes at http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/
Eligible institutions need to complete an application form to gain access to the free music. Eligible colleges and universities can use a variety of royalty-free music for many types of projects, provided that the projects do not bring direct revenue to the college or university. High schools, junior highs, elementary schools, and early education institutions can also obtain and use royalty-free music through AWM’s program, free-of-charge subject to the license requirements.
I’ve added AWM’s royalty-free music website to MLC’s Copyright Links web page.
June 23rd, 2006
Major software companies and device manufacturers have announced plans to support new electronic book standards developed within the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).  For more on this click here.
June 21st, 2006
“…as early as this year, the future may finally arrive. Some of the world’s top newspapers publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web on to reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cellphone displays.Flexible versions of these readers nay be available as early as 2007.”
Click here for more on this story.
June 14th, 2006
Interesting article in eWeek.com about an RFID alternative that may be of interest to libraries, titled “RuBee Offers an Alternative to RFID“.
June 12th, 2006
The NY Times reports on a ringtone that can be heard by teenagers but not by most adults. According to the story, “In settings where cellphone use is forbidden — in class, for example — it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message without being detected by an elder of the species.”
June 12th, 2006
Nancy Robertson, State Librarian, now has her own blog, News from Nancy, State Librarian of Michigan.
Nancy’s blog covers her travels to libraries around the state and other library news. It’s great to have a state librarian who is in tune with new technology – plus it’s fun for the rest of us to see the photos and to hear what is going on in libraries around the state. Yay, Nancy, and welcome to the blogosphere!
I’ve added State Librarian of Michigan to our blogroll. If your library’s blog is not yet on our blogroll, please email me your blog’s URL, and I’ll be happy to add.
June 12th, 2006
Yesterday, Beth Taylor from University of Michigan-Dearborn taught her first workshop for MLC. Welcome, Beth! To see photos from the workshop, visit www.flickr.com/photos/michiganlibraryconsortium/.
June 8th, 2006
There was an interesting article in the June 5, 2006 NY Times about digital books titled: “Digital Publishing is Scrambling the Industry’s Rules”.
“… one of the hottest debates in the book world right now, as publishers, editors and writers grapple with the Web’s ability to connect readers and writers more quickly and intimately, new technologies that make it easier to search books electronically and the advent of digital devices that promise to do for books what the iPod has done for music: making them easily downloadable and completely portable.”
June 7th, 2006
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