Hello World!

Hello world. This is my first post. I’m currently enrolled in the MLS program at St. John’s University. I’m certain that I’ll be adding future posts as I progress further into the program. For now, hello to all.

Library of Congress Main Reading Room

The Digital Divide

One of the major challenges confronting modern libraries is to help bridge the digital divide, which essentially is the disparity between people who have access to, and knowledge of, modern information and communication technologies and those who don’t. The link below is to a paper I wrote in my first MLS class that examines this issue from both a historical and a contemporary perspective.

Digital Divide

Kindle 2

When Amazon unveiled Kindle 2 in February 2009, it quickly found itself embroiled in a conflict with the Authors Guild regarding Kindle’s text-to-speech (TTS) feature. The Guild claimed that this feature violated copyright laws, a charge that Amazon denied. Ultimately, Amazon agreed to restrict this feature by allowing authors and publishers decide whether their works would be available for TTS. This compromise temporarily defused the conflict, but the underlying legal issues remain unresolved. Click on the link below to access an annotated bibliography on this topic.

Kindle 2 Annotated Bibliography

Google Project

For people who aren’t aware, Google has embarked on an ambitious project to scan into its search database a large number of books and research materials from four major university libraries and the New York Public Library. This project has raised some fundamental questions concerning copyright infringement and royalties. For an account of this controversy, you can read the attached article by Jonathan Band.

Google Library Project

Special Libraries Association

Founded in 1909, the Special Libraries Association, or SLA, is “the independent association representing the interests of thousands of information professionals in over eighty countries worldwide.”

OCLC

The OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit organization that helps scholars, students, librarians, and other professionals “obtain bibliographic, abstract, and full-text information.”  Its objectives are to increase access to information while offsetting the increases in library costs.

Metropolitan New York Library Council

The Metropolitan New York Library Council, generally referred to as METRO, is a library service organization that provides resources and services to 250 libaries in New York City and Westchester County. It was instituted in 1964 by the New York Board of Regents.

The Information Institute

“The Information Institute conducts innovative research and policy studies to improve information use and management for individuals, organizations, and society.” Created in 1999, it is associated with the College of Information at Florida State University.

The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship

“E-JASL is an independent, refereed electronic journal dedicated first and foremost to advancing knowledge and research in the areas of academic and special librarianship.” The journal is “published and distributed by the International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication (ICAAP).”