Cultural Research

Mag+ by Bonnier & the Future of Digital Readers

Mag+ by Bonnier

I'm gathering material for an overview of eBooks and eReaders but it seems pretty clear that the future lies not with the Kindle but rather with tablets and similar devices that exploit multimedia potentials instead of recreating paper-based reading experiences.

Mag+ is a conception by Bonnier R&D and design partner BERG of one direction such tablets could take .

The above video discusses features and properties of magazine design and use that were used in creating Mag+ as well as those that were left behind. I was happy to hear Jack Schulze's negative take on the faux page turning of online readers such as Zinio.

More from BERG.

The Office of Science & Technology Policy Now Holding Public Access Policy Forum

The Office of Science & Technology Policy is in the midst of a "Public Access Policy Forum" that signals good news for the future of government mandated open access to publically funded research.

Josh Hadro digs in a bit and also reminds librarians of their need to get involved.  That's a key point.  Marketing ourselves and educating the public by participation in open forums is crucial for the future of the profession.

Beautiful New Library Buildings

Library Journal shares some library buildings completed between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.

Some real beauties. Glad they got them done in time!

What Happens When Your Mobile Library Goes Tactile?

Synaptics Debuts Fuse Next-Generation Mobile Phone Concept

Like a squeezable iPhone.

More from Gizmodo.

Library Labs: Developing Tools & Gadgets for Library Communities

RSS4Lib shares a Directory of Experimental Library Tools including links to a number of different academic library labs.

OSU Library Labs wants to feature information tools created by their community:

"Have you created your own tool, gadget, plug-in, browser extension to help manage you personal access to and management of information? Are you willing to share with the community? If so, let us know!"

"The goal of the Ohio State University Library Labs is to showcase experimental and emerging technologies that facilitate access to information, resources, and services."

Other projects include mobile initiatives from NCSU and MIT, a library toolbar from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne and a promising looking integrated search experiment at the University of Virginia.

Plus, in a reminder that innovation doesn't have to always be enormous or expensive, the University of Texas has a nice example of the use of a variety of web services, some of them freely available on the web, to create Library Widgets.

Cultural Research: Library Innovation Blog (CR:LIB) Added to Newstex Blogs On Demand

I'm really happy to report that this modest blog of mine has been accepted for indexing and content distribution by Newstex Blogs On Demand.

That should mean that, before too long, CR:LIB will be available on such hallowed digital ground as LexisNexis and I think that's really cool!

I actually am quite familiar with Newstex because my pop culture/music industry blog, ProHipHop, was accepted into their program in the early days and, out of the various databases in which the blog's content can be found, LexisNexis provides the most traffic.

I'm looking forward to seeing how database users respond to the inclusion of CR:LIB since, in the long run, I believe this blog is a better fit for users' needs. But we'll see what happens.

On that note, I am planning to review commercial products, especially reference databases and the like, and those reviews will be included in the Newstex feed. If you'd like your products considered for review, please send info to:
culres(at)gmail(dot)com

Onwards and upwards!

Update: Just received news that CR:LIB is now fully integrated with Newstex.  Now I'm just waiting on ProQuest's marketing people for Entrepreneurship review access!

Innovation Resources: Journal of Library Innovation

The Journal of Library Innovation is publishing its premiere issue in January.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do and am quite happy that they are an open access journal.

Though I need to be careful about where I spend my energies at present, I am considering offering my support as a peer reviewer or in a related backstage role in order to put my MLS/PhD combo to work.  Given that every library innovator I've met to date has been pretty cool, maybe I'll make some interesting contacts as well!

Going forward, you'll be able to find related resources in this blog's Innovation Resources category. More theoretical material will be posted in Perspectives on Innovation. Both categories will include innovation insights directly related to libraries as well as applicable material from other areas.

Clyde, Where Are Your Library Innovation Posts?

I haven't been asked the headline question yet but I wanted to take a moment and clarify what I'm doing with this blog and how it relates to library innovation.

Two things are currently happening:

1) I'm writing my way into the topic which is how I typically work when blogging. If I was doing academic writing, my focus in public papers would be much clearer because a lot of this process would not be visible. But since I'm a blogger, you, dear reader, get a look at my process whether you want to or not!

2) Library innovation does not occur in a vacuum. I'm ultimately most interested in library innovation in higher education but that focus means that not only do I need to take into consideration the many factors affecting higher education as a whole, since a library serves a whole institutation, but also such areas as public and school libraries, because students come to college having already experienced such settings.

So I will bring up issues that may not seem to directly connect to higher ed but are actually quite influential in establishing the context for academic library usage [or non-usage, as the case might be].

That means that I'll also be discussing what I've learned on the open web over the last nine years during which much of my time has been spent as an online traveler and web publisher. I'll also be referring to my many years working in bookstores, where I learned much about customer service and about human navigation of information resources.

I would like to be able to say that whatever I blog about will therefore be connected to library innovation but that's a bit too easy. So I will do my best to at least make brief references regarding the relationship between a particular post and the topic of innovation, if that connection does not seem obvious, while occassionally allowing myself the blogger's perogative to go off-topic.

If you have any special interests related to library innovation that you would like me to dig into it, please let me know in the comments or at:
clydesmith(at)culturalresearch(dot)org

On that note, if you have any large files, commercial email, promo material or a newsletter you're hoping to sign me up for without permission, please uset:
culres(at)gmail(dot)com

It's the smart thing to do!