By Bohyun Kim | Editor's note: Bohyun Kim will present the ALA TechSource worskhop Improving Your Library’s Mobile Services Thursday, September 12, 2013. This post is adapted from her August/September Library Technology Report (vol. 49; no. 6) "The Library Mobile Experience: Practices and User Expectations" 1. Create a Mobile Website If your library does not have a mobile website yet, the number one priority is to provide one, even if it includes only the most basic information. A couple options offer quick start. The WordPress content management system, for example, has many plugins that instantly reformat any WordPress site into a mobilefriendly format when the site is viewed on a mobile device. WP Mobile Detector, WordPress Mobile Pack, and MobilePress are examples of such plugins.
ALA TechSource Blog
By Daniel A. Freeman | The 2013 ALA TechSource Annual Tech Wrap-up was a huge success. We had great presentations from our panel, and great participation from our audience. If you missed the event, or want to experience it again, you can view the video archive of the event here.
By Patrick Hogan | ALA TechSource has launched the new eContent Quarterly with a free preview issue announced at Annual Conference. Sue Polanka and Mirela Roncevic are coeditors. On the heels of the No Shelf Required 2 book, Sue Polanka was ready to try a new approach to covering the dynamic e-book marketplace for libraries. Not wanting to go it alone, she thought of Mirela, who had impressed her with outstanding editorial direction during their collaboration on an IGI book. She persuaded Mirela to join her as coeditor, and they proposed the digital journal to ALA. Mirela covered the e-book market for Library Journal. A contributor to Sue’s No Shelf Required blog, she wrote the Library Technology Report "E-Book Platforms in Libraries," which covers offerings from 51 leading e-book vendors.
By Patrick Hogan | Yvette Leigh, a branch manager at Chicago Public Library, shows off one of the CNC Mills at the Harold Washington Library Makerspace at a preconference on Friday. Attendees got a tour of the makerspace, scheduled to open July 8. The space also has Laser Cutters and Makerbot Replicator 3D Printers.
By Patrick Hogan | Once again, our team of Marshall Breeding, Sue Polanka, and Jason Griffey will present a free webinar on the technology that caught their eye at conference. Join us Monday, July 8, at 2:00 p.m. EDT. (Note an email promotion today stated an incorrect time.) Register here.
By Kate Sheehan | I’ve been posting about a more logical, less emotional approach to working with technology. But Nina McHale’s recent post about leaving libraries has inspired me to come clean. I’m thinking a lot about taking some of the emotion out of our relationship with technology because it’s giving us agita. Like Nina, I’ve been working in and with libraries for around 10 years.
By Sarah Ludwig | Kids Media is Common Sense Media’s new app. Free and available for Android, iPhone, and iPad, it's a convenient way to access the content from the website offering parents and educators reviews of games, movies, books, TV shows, and more. I have a love-hate relationship with Common Sense Media, Unlike typical reviews, Common Sense Media helps parents find age-appropriate media for their children. Each review identifies the most appropriate age group to consume the media, as well as specific content that might concern parents: sex, violence, drug use, materialism. For example, the review of the new "The Great Gatsby" movie identifies the target age as 14 and alerts readers to the following acts of violence, among other things: “A man is held by two others while someone else hits him, in a very brief scene. Another character runs over a woman with a car; her body is shown many times hitting the windshield and thudding to the ground. A man is also shown shooting someone from a distance and then putting the same gun in his mouth. A man strikes a woman hard.”
By Sarah Ludwig | One of the best parts of my job is sharing books with students. Sometimes, as a school librarian, I get so overwhelmed with research and technology instruction that I forget about books (it’s true!). But we have a robust YA collection that enjoys high circulation, and partly because three times a year, our middle school students are required to read a free-choice book over a long break in fall, winter, and spring. While requiring reading goes a bit against the grain of pleasure reading, the students can select any book they like and they do not have to finish it, which takes some of the pressure off. Before the break, every one of our middle school English classes comes into the library to hear about new books from me and to browse our collection for something to take home. The best part of this cycle, however, is the reflection.
By Kate Sheehan | Last time, I said I’d talk about memory, but I just went back and checked the post to be sure. Our memories are dark, murky backwaters where events shift, timelines change, and we’re never really on stable ground.
By Daniel A. Freeman | We are very excited about our upcoming episode The Present and Future of E-Books, which is going to take place next Thursday, April 18th at 2pm Eastern. I had a chance to talk briefly with our moderator Sue Polanka and panelist Jamie LaRue about what they plan on discussing.