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google books will get better, or will it?

This afternoon I used Google Books to help answer a readers’ advisory question. Keywords from the patrons’ question turned up in a 1971 issue of Horn Book, the children’s literature review. Google’s misshapen snippet showed part of a summary of the book, but nothing more. I took the elevator to the sub-basement, got lost, asked [...]

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• On a recent trip to DC, I watched with fascination as the high schoolers sitting next to me on my JetBlue flight attempted to control the individual TVs in the seat backs in front of them.  Both boys reached up and started touching the screen - tapping, dragging, trying increasingly elaborate gestures on the screen and getting frustrated that nothing was happening.  One boy noticed that there were control buttons on the arm rests and they enjoyed a hearty laugh about that. i sat there in my seat thinking..."whoa, i'm going to have think about this".  The assumption that the screen in front of them was a touch screen was automatic and complete.  Whoa. by rachel #
• I was thinking about the thing where The Scientist (register to see) blogged that Merck payed Elsevier publish a fake journal, and I was wondering what the two companies were saying about it. Tidbits: * Merck claims no foul play (more...) by caleb #
• Has anyone seen an access statement like this before? Sociological Research Online Open-ish access ... but wait! Not if you're at a university. How is this a good idea? Are the articles in Sociological Research so very very important that one could not possibly achieve academic success without access to them, making academic audiences willing to jump through any hoop to do so? I suspect not. Anyway, I not only think that it is not the best idea to alienate your most likely audience out of the gate, but I also don't really see how this will work. I get that if your library already has access to this journal, you won't care if you are going through that paid subscription or getting the free thing you can get at home (if you fill out a form with info about your ISP, which I think might be too much of a hoop in and of itself for a not very motivated researcher). But are they thinking that if the library doesn't have access the person will be more likely to go harass their library to subscribe than they will be to go home and get it there? I think I must be missing something about this. by anne-marie #
• I've been thinking some about new technology. What really makes a technology new, and what does that mean? I have an inkling to stand on my high hobby horse and say that a new or improved application of an existing technology isn't really new. My Subaru Outback and a Model A Ford are basically the same technology. Facebook is software. Pong is software. They are basically the same technology. What are some examples of actually new technologies we've seen recently? Electronic ink, that stays put without power, I think that's a new technology, but I'm not sure. Hybrid cars, maybe. So otherwise 'new technology' just means newer bigger better faster. But roundabout, if technology is applied science, all new applications of existing technologies are new technologies. So I'm foolish to to pretend Facebook and Pong are the same thing. But still I'm thinking about it. by caleb #
• I came across a post this morning by Joshua Schachter, "on url shorteners". He begins: "URL shortening services have been around for a number of years. Their original purpose was to prevent cumbersome URLs from getting fragmented by broken email clients that felt the need to wrap everything to an 80 column screen. But it's 2009 now, and this problem no longer exists." (more...) by caleb #