Spreadsheet comparing ebook readers

My brother in law has done this useful spreadsheet comparing various ebook readers and their capabilities: inputs, size, battery life, storage capacity, price in US and/or Aussie dollars.

He has looked at the Kindle 2, Kindle DX, Sony PRS-700, Barnes and Noble Nook, Borders Kobo, AcerLumiRead, Pico Life W960, IRivers Story.

Here's a link to the spreadsheet

WISE library session on giving presentations

On Friday the Perth universities WISE group held its mid-year get-together, this time at the University of Western Australia.

In case you are wondering WISE stands for WAGUL Information Sharing Exchange. And WAGUL is the Western Australian Group of University Librarians.

For the mid-year meet up Lisa Cluett ran a terrific session on giving presentations.

Lisa is an experienced presenter herself and a member Toast Masters.

It was the type of session that gave us some tangible ideas to help us make changes to how we present, and to rethink bad habits.

What I took away from it was:

1. Focus on your audience not what information you want to get across. Don’t think about what you want to tell them. I think I have been guilty of that in the past, especially in library skills session when we have so much to get across. But how much can students really absorb in one session. If you don’t know you audience do a bit of research. This applies not just to presentations but in a number of other settings: writing this blog for example.

2. Prepare your presentation outline on paper rather than launch straight into getting your Powerpoints done and don’t use someone else’s Powerpoints and adapt. Oops I have done that too!

3. Start strongly so your initial impression grabs the audience’s attention and avoid slipping into clichéd intro lines. I have heard this before too, but we all need reminding.

4. To improve your presentations get some honest feedback from friends and colleagues

I’m preparing a short session for our ECU Library 2.0 training day on ebook readers, so I will focus on what the staff might want to know about these devices. I know already that most of the audience don’t already have an ebook reader, but some are interested in buying one. Staff will also want to know what the library is planning to do and if our existing ebooks could be made available to students, with a loan of an ebook reader for example.

Ebook readers the story so far

Mike Oetting, Reference Librarian from Hinsdale Public Library provides these slides on Slideshare which outline the state of the eReader market after the entry of Apple’s iPad.

This relates to the state of play in the U.S. Here in Australia not all these devices are available, however the iPad has just hit the market here.

iPads, Kindles and Nooks--Oh My!

View more presentations from Mike Oetting.

Battle to save Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Libraries in North Carolina

There's a crisis at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Libraries in North Carolina. The Library Board plans to lay off 148 staff and close 12 libraries by 3rd April, due to a massive US $2million budget hole.

This seems incredible that the libraries that brought the Learning 2.0 (aka 23 Things) to many libraries around the world and changed so many lives are now battling to survive.

American Libraries magazine has a report of the public rally over the weekend to help raise funds to alleviate the impact of budget cuts.

What can you do to help? Go to Save our Libraries and also Lori Reed 's website for more information. The Twitter hash code is #cmlibrary

Singing in the Rain, Hong Kong library conference

There’s an exciting library conference on in Hong Kong this week, with some local and international presenters.

It’s the Academic Librarian 2: Singing in the Rain conference held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University March 11-12, which is all about the future of libraries and the library profession.

This conference is the second "Academic Librarian" conference in Hong Kong and is an extension of The Academic Librarian: Dinosaur or Phoenix Conference held by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2007.

The major themes are:

• Librarians of Tomorrow
• Quality Enhancement
• New Tools & Culture
• Collaboration & Networking

There will be some presentations on how libraries are embedding Web 2.0 and training staff in this area.

conference summary is:

“Academic Librarians face unprecedented challenges to their role, to how they manage their collections and how they interact professionally with their academic colleagues. They require different professional and personal skills as well as different ways of interacting with their communities, both in the academic, publishing and other vendor communities. In the current context of a global recession, without doubt, it is going to be a future full of challenges and opportunities. What has changed and what needs to change? As suggested by the Conference subtitle "Singing in the Rain", a new generation of academic librarians cannot survive without an optimistic, positive and thoughtful attitude towards the future.”

Moira Bent's visit to Curtin University

A special event was organised at Curtin University Library, Perth last week.

Moira Bent, National Teaching Fellowship recipient was visiting from the U.K. Moira is a Science liaison librarian from Newcastle University and one of only 5 U.K. librarians who have received a National Teaching Fellowships. Her blog posts about the fellowship are here.

Having the fellowship has given Moira the opportunity and time to undertake research and publish in a number of areas which she spoke about:

• Facilitating research roles and opportunities for librarians. This is one area that Australian librarians can (and are already) be involved with in providing research support with the ERA and imperative to publish. (The Newcastle University library has a useful “Writing for publication brochure”
• Librarians framing information literacy as a set of learning attitude or behaviours, rather than just as a set of skills.

At the tea discussion she talked about librarians getting out to conferences in non-library areas. I totally agree. We need to collaborate with academic and teaching and learning colleagues.

There's lots more to explore here. These are links to the articles and activities Moira has been involved with.

Perceptions of Information Literacy in the Transition to Higher Education. NTF Final Report.

Providing effective library services for research (book)

Information Literacy in a researcher's learning life: the Seven Ages of Research (article)

Integrating information literacy as a habit of learning (article)

SCONUL Report on Library Services for International Students (report)

Vale Jillian Beswick, Lake Macquarie librarian

The Perth library community was saddened to hear of the recent death of Jillian Beswick, who passed away in Brisbane on February 15th 2010, after a long battle with cancer.

Jillian was a qualified teacher and had worked in school and public libraries in Tasmania and the Northern Territory prior to moving to Western Australia.

She completed an MBA at Murdoch University in 1993 and we remember her fondly at Edith Cowan University Library where worked in a number of management roles from 1994-1997.

Jillian was active in ALIA during her time in Western Australia and was also an ABN trainer.

Her interests ranged widely and she was involved in the local community and stood for local government in the Shire of Cambridge, W.A.

She left Perth in 1997 to take up a senior position in charge of public libraries and cultural activities at the City of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.

Jillian was a keen flyer and had her pilot’s licence. While in Lake Macquarie she took up sailing and enjoyed the lakeside lifestyle.

She remained in NSW until she became ill a few years ago.

The Australian library community has lost an active, committed and passionate member.