Bookmobile 2.0

Welcome to the all new Digital Bookmobile, the world's first bookmobile without books. This 18 wheeler is 69 feet long and packed with the latest digital technologies. It was created by Over Drive to be used as an outreach tool for public libraries to promote their digital offerings.

How it works:

"The Digital Bookmobile, developed inside a high-tech tractor-trailer, will present programs that promote the host library’s download digital media catalog and ‘virtual branch’ website. The vehicle is customized for each library event and equipped with broadband Internet-connected PCs, high definition monitors, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players. Hands-on learning stations demonstrate how to search the digital media catalog, use supported mobile devices, and download and enjoy eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video from the library."

It kicks off it's national tour August 10th at the main branch of the New York Public Library. Current tour schedule here.


Thanks to LIS for the lead

The Library of Congress Hits the Jackpot on Flickr

No one saw this coming.

The plan was simple enough. The Library of Congress teamed with Flickr for a pilot project called The Commons, which basically consisted of LOC opening a Flickr account and uploading a little over 3,000 images (the LOC houses 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials!)

The goal was to address two of the major challenges the library faces:
1. "how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and
2. "how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity."

The result was astonishing and could arguably be one of the greatest cultural achievements to date in the young world of social networking.

Here's what happened within two days:

• All 3,100+ photos have been viewed
• 420 of the photos have comments
• 1,200 of the photos have been favorited
• 392,000 views on the photostream
• 650,000 views of photos
• About 1.1 million total views on our account

In their wildest dreams no one at either the LOC or Flickr expected this kind of public response.

"Frankly, none of us could quite fathom how fantastic the response to the pilot has been." is how they put it at Flickr's blog.

And Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress responded by saying "I can tell you that the reaction to this two-day-old project has already vastly exceeded our expectations."

This is a watershed event. It is a solid web 2.0 victory and one that just might expand the boundaries of social networking, where people are interacting with places as much as with people.

For the Library of Congress, and all the libraries that are watching how this pilot turns out, it is a brave new world. Now the conversation must include the question - what are we doing to bring our collections to the public? Your collection strategy can longer be solely focused on having people come to you to see what you have or in loaning items to other institutions, museums etc.

The success of this pilot might also have an affect on the Google Book Search model that many libraries are endorsing. Maybe libraries need a more multi-dimensional Web 2.0 approach to their collections, one that encompasses more than just digitizing the contents of their books.


Image from the Bain Collection at the LOC

The Hunt Is On In the U.K.

The public libraries of the United Kingdom are on a treasure hunt.

The goal:

To find the coolest item in their collection that has yet to be digitized and enter it into a contest being run by the British Library.

The contest is sponsored by the British Library with financial support coming from Microsoft.

If a particular library doesn't feel they have anything worthy they can they include "local partners such as museums, archives, churches or stately homes" to come up with their submission.

Finalists will be "invited to a high-profile awards ceremony at the British Library."

There will be one winner for each part of the Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The winning items will be "digitized, converted into Turning the Pages 2.0 format and hosted online by the British Library for three years."

This is a pretty clever marketing strategy for both Microsoft and the British Library as it provides maximum exposure while providing an opportunity to feature their recently unveiled Turning the Pages 2.0 technology.

They are guaranteed A-list material to show off the technology with minimum expense.

Don't get me wrong. I can't wait to see the digitized versions of the winning books but the real contest should be in trying to find a way for these public institutions to digitize and make available to the public a much greater portion of their holdings.

British Library announcement
Article in the Belfast Telegraph on the contest

Previous Book Patrol post on the Turning the Pages 2.0 technology

University of Washington Digital Collections Uses Wikipedia

Library, University of Washington 1922

The librarians at the University of Washington Libraries, Digital Initiatives unit, are reaching out to where many users first begin an information search - Wikipedia. They are inserting links into this popular online encyclopedia. The links are increasing the impact of the digitized materials in the UW collections, providing direct access beyond the traditional boundaries of the library.

The University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections are comprised of over 120,000 images, text, and audio files covering a wide range of topics and resources. Special strengths are in Seattle history and people and places of the Pacific Northwest. These collections average 3,600 visits a day. The ongoing project to insert links into Wikipedia involves assessing the subject areas of the collections and matching them to existing Wikipedia articles. In some cases, new articles have been created to inform the user about a unique collection. An example is the J. Willis Sayre Photographs, a selection of nearly 10,000 images of theatrical and vaudeville entertainers who performed in Seattle from 1900-1955.

Beauty line from 'The Midnight Sons', 1911, Moore Theatre, Seattle

Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia collaboratively written by its users. With over 1.5 million English-language articles, it is fast becoming one of the top reference resources. Part of the appeal is that the articles are well organized and categorized. The liberal use of links - to other Wikipedia articles and to outside resources - makes it a good starting point for information searches. While anyone may contribute to Wikipedia, there are policies, guidelines, and forums which govern the creation and editing of content, including tools to minimize spamming. Furthermore, Wikipedia content may be copied and distributed freely. Copies of articles with the University of Washington links can be found in a number of other online dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Including links in Wikipedia is an excellent way to increase access to the University of Washington Digital Collections as well as to participate in the creation of information resources around the world.


Material for this post is from the May/Jun 2007 issue of D-Lib Magazine, "Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections" by Ann M. Lally and Carolyn E. Dunford of the University of Washington Libraries. Images are from the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection.

Side By Side. Finally

For the first time, after who knows how many thousands of years, the sacred texts of the world's three monastic faiths, Judiasm, Christianilty and Islam have been gathered together for an exhibition at the British Library.

The exhibit Sacred: Discover What We Share: The World's Greatest Collection of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Holy Books brings together the rarest sacred texts in existence.

Highlights include:
A tattered copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls and
A"Qur'an commissioned for a 14th-century Mongol ruler of modern Iran who was born a shaman, baptised a Christian, and converted first to Buddhism, then Sunni and finally Shia Islam."

There is a significant online component to the exhibit that features videos, podcasts and interactive maps. There are also 8 texts in the exhibit that are available to view using the newly released "Turning The Pages" technology

Graham Shaw, the lead curator, says of the exhibit "We were determined not to create faith zones, but to show these wonderful manuscripts side by side, and demonstrate how much we share"

Maybe one day we can all live that way.



Guardian article on the exhibit



Images:
Above: St.Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels
Below: Sultan Baybar's Qur'an from the British Library