2-Weekly Reader

What They Didn't Tell You About Being a Librarian
"First off, I enjoy my job as a librarian. That hasn’t changed in the 10 years that I’ve been a librarian. So, please excuse some of my snarkiness below. It’s the Friday before Spring Break (but we all know that most librarians don’t get a Spring Break) and I needed a little fun! Here’s a list of 10 things they didn’t tell you about being a librarian." -- Joe Hardenbrook, Mr. Library Dude, 3/9/12.

LITA Top Ten Technology Trends at ALA Midwinter
"The LITA Top Technology Trends panel discussion at ALA Midwinter in Dallas took place on Sunday, January 22, 2012. This year’s panel of technology experts was a combination of veteran and new faces: Stephen Abram, Gale Cengage Learning , Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt University Library , Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC , Nina McHale, Arapahoe Library District, Colorado and Sue Polanka, Wright State University Libraries" -- M. Prentiss, LITA Blog, 3/1/12

Random House's eBook Price Hikes are Good for Libraries - IF
"Random House, the last of the Big 6 Publishers to allow libraries to purchase and lend ebooks on a 1-copy-1-patron (pretend-its-print) basis, said last month that it was going to raise its pricing for libraries. The new pricing isn't set in stone, but Library Journal has reported that libraries are being asked to pay as much as three times the price of a print copy for a lendable ebook from Random House." -- Eric Hellman, Go to Hellman, 3/4/12

Boomerang Kids Don't Mind Their Roommates -- err, Parents
"Not that long ago, continuing to dwell in your childhood bedroom in your mid-20s — let alone your early-30s — was considered the ultimate sign of failure. Today, it’s considered normal. In fact, the Pew Research Center declared it a “widespread phenomenon” that is embraced and understood." -- Jenna Johnson, Campus Overload - The Washington Post, 3/15/12

Change - The Encyclopedia Britannica Editors Say "It's Okay"
"If you were saving some of your budget to purchase the next print edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, I have some bad news for you. Yesterday the editors announced that after 244 years of publication, they are going to stop printing bound volumes and instead will focus on digital editions. This decision is not altogether unexpected, given that most reference sources are going digital, but it remains somewhat surprising to those of us who are used to the 30+ volume set gathering dust on the ready reference shelf." -- Veronica Wells, ACRLog, 3/14/12

Study Suggests Many Professors Use Interactive Tools Ineffectively in Online Courses
"Philadelphia—Professors can choose from a growing palette of Web-based tools to make their online courses more interactive. But a new study suggests that many community-college instructors aren’t taking advantage of those options. Instead, the professors are relying on static course materials that aren’t likely to motivate students or encourage them to interact with each other." -- Nick DeSantis, The Wired Campus, 3/6/12

Why are We Boycotting Elsevier?
"In my circles, the answer to this question is fairly obvious. But as I was trying to explain to undergraduates how messed up scholarly publishing is, I realized it's hard to grasp unless you already have been bruised by current practices. When you're just learning how information works and have only gotten as far as "you ought to use scholarly sources," it's very puzzling indeed. So I thought I'd try to break it down. Here are the reasons over 7,000 scholars are boycotting a publisher of over 2,500 scholarly journals." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish [Inside Higher Ed], 2/24/12