Weekly Reader

Is it Time to Rethink E-Books?
"The father of the e-book passed away last week. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, died Tuesday, September 6, at the age of 64. Considered by most to be the man that jumpstarted the move toward digital books, Hart created the first fully digitized public document by hand-typing the Declaration of Independence into a University of Illinois computer. That was back in 1971, and Project Gutenberg has arguably paved the way for what we now know as e-readers and, most importantly, e-books." -- Kristina Bjoran, Six Revisions, 9/16/11

Thursday Threads: Authors Guild Sues Hathi Trust, Libraries Learn from Blockbuster, Publisher’s View of Self-Publishing
"Legal action against the digitization and limited distribution of orphan works unexpectedly hit the news again this week. This week’s DLTJ Thursday Threads starts with an overview of the lawsuit filed by authors organizations and authors against Hathi Trust over plans to make digital versions of orphan works available to university users. And while we’re wondering of libraries’ role in providing access to digitized works, we should also take note of an article in American Libraries Magazine on what we could learn from Blockbuster’s fall. And lastly, I point to a story of one author’s experience when her own self publishing with Amazon ran afoul of a publisher’s desires." -- Peter Murray, Distruptive Library Technology Blog, 9/15/11

Edit Your Videos with YouTube
"Until now, when you uploaded to YouTube, your video was hosted and shared, but couldn’t really be changed. If you wanted to trim off the end, swap out the soundtrack, or add an effect, you had to edit your video using a separate program and upload again.Starting today, you can edit your uploaded videos right on YouTube and maintain the same video IDs. This means you keep your view count and comments, and all existing links to your video will continue to work. No re-uploading necessary! " -- John Gregg, Broadcasting Ourselves, 9/14/11

Blogger Gets the Last Laugh
"Alex Christensen is getting the last laugh after a blog he created poking fun at his alma mater was shut down, and has now been restored. It started simply enough. After Washington University in St. Louis unveiled its website redesign in December, Christensen, a senior at the time, decided to poke a little fun at his university. He started the blog “Wash U Photo Captions” in December, posting what he calls the “ridiculous” promotional photographs from the university’s new website and adding his own snarky captions." -- Elizabeth Murphy, Inside Higher Ed News, 9/14/11

Cyberbullying 101: Fact vs Fiction (podcast)
"A great deal has been said and written about cyberbullying, but not all of it is true. As Cyberbullying Research Center co-director Justin Patchin said in an interview recently, it's "a concern that we need to take very seriously," but "it's certainly not an epidemic." Cyberbullying, said Patchin, is "bullying behaviors carried out using or facilitated by technology," which includes "a lot of the same kind of things we see at school and in neighborhoods, such as harassment or disrespecting or rumors or gossip that are now being carried out online." [podcast link] -- Larry Magid, CNet News, 9/12/11