The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

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The German Digital Library / Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

From the Germany.info website

Rummaging through archives, visiting museums, or learning about the latest research results – you can do it all from the comfort of your home. The German Digital Library will make it possible. The stocks and collections of more than 30,000 archives, libraries, museums, and many other institutions will be digitally recorded in the German Digital Library and made available online. In order to tap into these resources, developers plan to use the latest search and presentation technologies, making virtual museum visits just as possible as 3D images of scientific models. The German Digital Library - in German, Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek or DDB, for short - will give the general public, not just specialists, access to culture and science. The new portal will make scientific information and cultural documents accessible to everyone from home through a mere mouse click. The new portal is to be launched in 2011.


How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers (Note: PDF)

From the Global Information Industry Center website

U.S. households consumed approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008, according to this new report, released by the University of California, San Diego.
Key takeaways:

• The new report estimates that between 1980 and 2008, bytes consumed increased 350%, for an average annual growth rate of 5.4%. According to the report, the average American’s information consumption is 34 gigabytes and 100,000 words of information a day
• Hourly statistics confirm that a large chunk of the average American’s day is spent watching television. The new report estimates that on average 41% of information time is watching TV (including DVDs, recorded TV and real-time watching). American consumers watched 36 million hours of television on mobile devices each month - a number that, while expected to grow, is a fraction of the hours spent watching television at home
• Based on bytes alone, computer games are the biggest information source totalling 18.5 gigabytes per day for the average American consumer, or about 67% of all bytes consumed. Approximately 80% of the population plays some kind of computer game, including casual games such as Bookworm, Tetris and social networking games
• Americans spent 16% of their information hours using the Internet (second only to TV’s 41%). With the proliferation of e-mail, instant messaging and social networking, the Internet today dominates two-way communications, with more than 79% of those bytes every day.
  

OCLC Annual Report 2008/2009 (Note: PDF)

From the OCLC website

This has been a challenging year for the OCLC cooperative. Financially, OCLC was not immune to the effects of the worldwide economic recession. At the same time, we continued to execute our long-term strategy of building Web-scale services, setting the stage for an exciting transformation in the way libraries serve their institutions and users.


Bookends Scenarios: Alternative futures for the Public Library Network in NSW in 2030 (Note: PDF)

From the State Library of NSW website

NSW public libraries have always played a significant role in supporting the information, education, cultural and recreational needs of local communities. However, contemporary public libraries operate in an environment that is vastly different to that of their predecessors. Library services, technology tools, collection formats and community needs are diverse and continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Trends are readily discernible in hindsight, especially the rapid growth in library usage in NSW over the past 5 years. The future however is a different story.
It was, therefore, the aim of this project to explore how the future of NSW public libraries might unfold over the next twenty years. The scenarios are intended to enable consideration of the types of roles, products and services that will be offered, delivered and accessed through the NSW Public Library Network in 2030.
From the discussions and workshops held with over 150 public library staff from all levels and age ranges, four possible scenarios have been distilled which represent different directions for NSW public libraries. Readers will note that some aspects of the scenarios may already be emerging, many aspects are interdependent and interconnected and some appear more probable and plausible than others. All four scenarios identify new opportunities and unforeseen risks associated with the future environment in which public libraries operate.


Virtual provider pessimism: analysing instant messaging reference encounters with the pair perception comparison method

From the InformationR.net website

We examine the differences between user and provider perceptions of the same instant messaging reference encounter. We summarise previous studies of face-to-face reference encounters, identifying a common phenomenon we call provider pessimism - when users of a service are more satisfied than providers think they will be. We then look for this phenomenon in an instant messaging reference setting.


A profession in transition: towards development and implementation of standards for visual resources management. Part B - the professional's perspective and beyond

From the InformationR.net website

Visual resources is an emerging, increasingly complex field experiencing the impact of digital technologies and the many environments of practice. These include museums, archives, private organizations and libraries. A graduate degree in Library and Information Science supplemented with the week-long non-certified Summer Educational Institute in Visual Resources and Image Management course is suggested to prepare future professionals for the field.


A Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Libraries (Note: PDF)

From the SLAINTE website

The Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) support the adoption of new technologies that could enhance the delivery of library services. SLIC and CILIPS have been working with Web2.0 services for over two years now. We believe that the incorporation of services, such as Flickr, Twitter and SlideShare, has enhanced our communication model, enabling us to better support and promote libraries.
Although Web2.0 services have been integrated within our organisation, feedback from our members within the Scottish library and information community indicates that considerable barriers to widespread adoption remain. The greatest challenge seems to be access, as many organisations restrict or block the use of Web2.0 or social networking sites, denying staff the opportunity to experiment with these potentially powerful tools.
In response to demand from members, and in order to address this challenge, SLIC and CILIPS have created these guidelines to highlight the potential of social media within library services and to reassess restrictive practices regarding access.