Tag Archive for 'library'

Awards in the News (Jan. 7-13, 2008)

Published by Erica Nielsen on January 13, 2008 in In the News. 0 Comments

♦ Education Nonprofit GLOBIO Receives Google Grant
GLOBIO, an education nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., that serves children in homes and schools around the state and across the world, announced that it has been awarded a Google Grant. The Google Grants program helps registered nonprofit organizations leverage the power of Google AdWords advertising to engage and inform their online constituents. – Newswire

♦ CDW-G and Discovery Education Launch Win a Wireless Lab 2008
CDW Government, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Corporation and leading source of Information Technology solutions to governments and educators, and Discovery Education, the leader in digital video and multimedia-based learning, today announced the sixth annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes, giving schools nationwide the opportunity to win a 21st-Century Classroom, complete with wireless computers, interactive whiteboards and digital cameras. – Reuters

♦ FINRA Investor Education Foundation Announce $853,000 in Grants
Washington, DC. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA) announced 13 grants, totaling more than $853,000, to public libraries and library networks across the country, giving millions of library patrons and their families greater access to unbiased investing information and resources. – The Cherry Creek News

Research in the News - January 1-6, 2008

Published by Zornitsa Vodenska on January 7, 2008 in In the News. 0 Comments

Update ons: Generation Y the most frequent visitor of libraries, nearly half of Americans create content online

248594239_b89377fa49_m.jpgOf the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said. The survey reveals that Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users. Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world. — Reuters

535876554_487b6d1ec8_m.jpgDeloitte’s 2008 State of the Media Democracy survey found that 45 percent of survey respondents are developing Web sites, photo albums, blogs and music online to share with friends, family, peers and total strangers. The demand to access content “on the go” is also reflected strongly in the survey, with 36 percent of all respondents stating that they view their cell phone as an entertainment device - a rise from 24 percent in Deloitte’s previous survey - with digital cameras, text messaging, and games ranking highest as the applications consumers are most frequently using on their phones. — Reuters

Schools and Programs in the News - November 12, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 12, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: One Laptop Per Child, Hoover City Schools in Alabama, PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s literacy initiative, No Child Left Behind, and LeTourneau’s Tyler Educational Site

India is the latest of the countries where the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) experiment has started. Children from the village of Khairat were given the opportunity to learn how to use the XO laptop. — Wiki News Reports 

Hoover City Schools in Alabama is expanding access to library services with the adoption of a centralized, Web-based system that allows students to search for and reserve books online and have them delivered to their desks the next day using Follett’s Destiny Library Manager. The district is also using the system to provide library enhancements, including providing previews of books. — T.H.E. Journal

In January PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will launch a five-year literacy initiative for preschoolers and young learners aimed at teachers, parents, and caregivers. Funded in part through a grant from the United States Department of Education, the multi-pronged initiative, dubbed “PBS Kids Raising Readers,” will include a wide range of new tools and media, including television series, Web content, professional development, and a preschool curriculum, designed to develop literacy skills in kids aged 2 to 8. — T.H.E. Journal

No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization this year, giving supporters and opponents alike a chance to change the federal law. Bush signed the bill into law in January 2002. The law has become one of his most prominent domestic achievements. Bush has asked Congress to reauthorize the law, saying No Child Left Behind “is working for all kinds of children in all kinds of schools in every part of the country.” — The Durango Herald

LeTourneau is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Most students follow a “blended” track by attending classes at LeTourneau’s Tyler Educational Site and also taking some courses online. This article profiles the institution and some of the students who have benefited from its flexible program. — Tyler Paper

Publishers in the News - November 7, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 7, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Cambridge University Press, Bibliographical Center for Research

As a special incentive to draw new subscribers to Cambridge University Press‘ outstanding online databases, the Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR) and Cambridge are offering one free month of access to any of these resources offered through BCR. — BCR

Games in the News — November 6, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on November 6, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: Games at South Carolina State Library

The South Carolina State Library has recently purchased a selection of educational game technology that may be loaned to South Carolina public libraries. This is a great opportunity for these libraries to get their “feet wet” before purchasing gaming equipment for themselves. – LibraryTrax Blog

Publishers in the News – October 26, 2007

Published by Erica Nielsen on October 26, 2007 in In the News. 0 Comments

Updates on: BCR and Cambridge University Press Online, Publishing, LLC, Thomson Corporation and Reuters, Harcourt School Publishers and Wireless Generation, Pearson, and Thomson

BCR and Cambridge University Press Online have partnered with the Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR) to provide access to a catalog of valuable resources for every type of library patron, from public library to university audiences. — BCR

Publishing, LLC (”EMC”), an independent educational publisher, today announced it had acquired Lawrenceville Press, Inc. (”LVP”), a Pennington, NJ-based developer and publisher of computer applications and programming textbooks for the U.S. and Canadian school market. — SYS-CON

Thomson Corporation and Reuters on Thursday expressed confidence in securing clearance for the Canadian group’s £9bn ($18.4bn) bid for its London rival without major concessions as each reported better third-quarter figures than expected. –MSNBC

Harcourt School Publishers and Wireless Generation have formed a partnership to bring assessment to Harcourt’s StoryTown and Trophies curricula. — T.H.E. Journal

Education and information company Pearson Plc on Monday announced its trading update for the first nine months of fiscal 2007, reporting a 6% rise in underlying sales from continuing operations, on strong segmental performance. — RTT News

Thomson Corp. Thursday reported third-quarter earnings of $2.97 billion, or $4.61 a share, up from a year-ago profit of $419 million, or 65 cents a share. — CNN

Project Gutenberg’s archiving software: Greenstone Digital Library

Published by Susan Smith Nash on June 4, 2007 in Programs and Research. 0 Comments

You’re probably familiar with Project Gutenberg, the repository of more than 3,700 titles that range from Shakespeare, to Edgar Allan Poe, to William Blake. Project Gutenberg is an invaluable resource, not only because of the availability of text, but because of the searachability of the archive.

What you may not know is how the works are archived, and how the various search engines work. I was surprised to learn that the library archiving software used is by Greenstone Digital Library, a software developer from New Zealand. Not only is their software widely used by not-for-profit archives and libraries, it is also open-source.

The archiving software has been used for cataloguing, retrieving and storing repositories of music (Chopin at the University of Chicago), art, and historical documents, in addition to texts.

Greenstone runs on Windows and UNIX servers, and is fully documented in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. It offers complete interfaces in numerous other languages. I would say that installing and running Greenstone is not for the faint of heart, but it does seem to have a solid set of help and instruction manuals.

The URL is http://www.greenstone.org