New online learning community for librarians

From the Chronicle of Higher Education

WebJunction, an online learning community for librarians and library staff, has launched new social and learning applications for the site. The site, first started with money and backing from the Online Computer Library Center and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had 30,000 individual members even before the revamp.
There are three new items of note:
A “friending” utility allowing librarians to connect with friends, peers, and colleagues from across the library community. There are also public profiles, the ability to tag useful bits of information, and recommendations.
Librarians can now create their own content with tools provided by the site.
There are more flexible online courses covering business, technical, and library skills.
A report on Blogjunction, the site’s blog, says that since the new tools launched last week, the library site had had 15,000 unique visitors, a pace that, if it keeps up, will give them more traffic than in any other month of their 5-year existence. —Josh Fischman

Libraries step into the age of iPod

read article

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It may be about time to dig out that old library card. Hoping to draw back readers, libraries have vastly expanded their lists of digital books, music, and movies that can be downloaded by their patrons to a computer or MP3 player -- and it doesn't cost a cent, unlike, say, media from Apple Inc'siTunes or Amazon.com Inc.
In Phoenix, for instance, branches have banded together to create a digital library that currently has about 50,000 titles of e-books, audiobooks, music and videos that can be "checked out" from anywhere.
Once discovered, says Tom Gemberling, the electronic resources librarian for the Phoenix Public Library, the program often proves wildly popular.

IFLA medal for work in developing countries awarded

eIFL Director receives IFLA Medal for groundbreaking work with libraries in transition and developing countries

Rima Kupryte, Director of Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL.net) was honoured by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) at the 74th World Library and Information Congress in Quebec, Canada. The IFLA Medal is one of the highest professional accolades and

Publishing jargon

A Publishing Primer

Don't know your French flaps from your headbands? Here's a guide to the arcane terminology of the book world

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/08/2008081101c.htm

Bibliometric indices

Interesting papers on the use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance available at:
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esep/v8/n1/
"Quantifying the relative performance of individual scholars, groups of scholars, departments, institutions, provinces/states/regions and countries has become an integral part of decision-making over research policy, funding allocations, awarding of grants, faculty hirings, and claims for promotion and tenure. Bibliometric indices (based mainly upon citation counts), such as the h-index and the journal impact factor, are heavily relied upon in such assessments. There is a growing consensus, and a deep concern, that these indices — more-and-more often used as a replacement for the informed judgement of peers — are misunderstood and are, therefore, often misinterpreted and misused. The articles in this ESEP Theme Section present a range of perspectives on these issues. Alternative approaches, tools and metrics that will hopefully lead to a more balanced role for these instruments are presented."

Unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24096948-25132,00.html


The unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried
beneath lava by Vesuvius's eruption in AD79, is slowly revealing its
long-held secrets
STORED in a sky-lit reading room on the top floor of the Biblioteca
Nazionale in Naples are the charred remains of the only library to survive
from classical antiquity. The ancient world's other great book collections
-- at Athens, Alexandria and Rome - - all perished in the chaos of the
centuries. But the library of the Villa of the Papyri was conserved,
paradoxically, by an act of destruction................

User name and password for Chronicle of HE

Sorry - you will need this to view the article about Muhammad's Bride

user name: ru library
password: ru2007

CONTROVERSY OVER NOVEL ABOUT MUHAMMAD'S BRIDE

CONTROVERSY OVER NOVEL ABOUT MUHAMMAD'S BRIDE ENDURES:

A novel about a wife of Muhammad has been canceled by Random House,
sparking a controversy over freedom of speech and the role of
a University of Texas history professor.

http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/08/4190n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medi
um=en