Google to Allow Printing of Classics

Google Makes Novels Free to Print. BBC News. August 30, 2006.
Google plans to make classic works of fiction available to consumers in a read-to-print format.

Inside Look at Google Book Scanning Project

Google, UC Disclose Book-scan Terms. Juan Carlos Perez. Computerworld. August 29, 2006.
The University of California has made public its contract with Google, revealing the terms and procedures for its participation in the company's library digitization project.

Consumer Reports Creates Own Test Viruses

AV Vendors Flip Over CU's 'Dummy Viruses'. Andy Patrizio. Internetnews.com. August 23, 2006.
The creators of antivirus products are furious that Consumers Union has tested their products with viruses of their own creation. The viruses were variants of known ones, and the purpose of the test ws to see how the software products dealt with unknowns.

How Music Affects the Mind

Music Makes Your Brain Happy. Randy Dotinga. Wired News. August 23, 2006.
Rock producer-turned-neuroscientist Daniel Levitin of McGill University discusses the mental processes involved in making and listening to music in this interview.

Robotic Blimps to be Tested

Could a Blimp Improve Communications? Alicia Chang. Associated Press (via Yahoo! News). August 20, 2006.
Former NASA manager Bob Jones, of Sanswire Networks LLC, forsees unmanned airships being used as an alternative to telecommunication towers. They would hover in the stratosphere and be powered by the sun.

How Knowledge Bases can Help the ILS

Findability Enabled . Dodie Ownes. Library Journal. August 15, 2006. As libraries begin to add independent electronic resource management systems to their integrated library systems, knowledge bases are seen as essential. In this article Ownes makes the case for the knowledge base and profiles the services of one of her clients, Serials Solutions. [Knowledge Base]

Time Magazine Jumping the Gun on Rivals

Time Speeds Up. Louis Hau. Forbes.com. August 17, 2006. In a move to gather more advertising revenue, Time is moving its publication up two days, in advance of its competitors Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. This article also provides some industry statistics.

Beyond Google: Artificial Intelligence?

Spying an Intelligent Search Engine. Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com. August 18, 2006.
AI advocates say that the next step in web search will be search engines that understand the relationships between words rather than just matching keywords to documents. AI concepts are already being applied in the area of medical search.

Evaluating Library Blogs

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, v.6 n.10. August 2006.
In "Perspective: Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle" Walt Crawford provides an excellent follow-up to last year's popular "Investigating the Biblioblogosphere" by analyzing the second tier of library weblogs. He identifies "category standouts" and presents them in both tabular and annotated formats.

Influence of the IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer's 25th Anniversary. PC World. August 11, 2006.
Although it wasn't the first personal computer, the releasse of IBM's 5150 in 1981 exerted a tremendous influence on the development of the personal computer. Built with readily available technology and furnished with extensive documentation, it allowed imitators to create clones that helped make the PC the ubiquitous tool that we have today.

Library 2.0 Defined

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries. Jack M. Maness. Webology. Volume 3, Number 2. June, 2006.
The author of this article demonstrates the ways that "Web 2.0" features are transforming Web-based library services. These include synchronous messaging, streaming media, blogs and wikis, social netowkrstagging, RSS feeds, and mashups. Their potential for libraries remains to be fully realized.

State of the Digital Video War

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: The Battle Rages On. Jay Wrolstad. Newsfactor Magazine Online. August 12, 2006.
This article, citing a report from The Screen Digest, summarizes the differences between HD DVD and Blu-ray. It quotes experts who believe that the Blu-ray format, backed by the likes of Sony and Disney, will dominate.

Dave Sifri on Blogs

Search Site Tracks Blogosphere's Rapid Expansion. NPR. August 12, 2006.
In this interview for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, Technorati founder Dave Sifry discusses top blogs as well as statistics and trends in blogging.

Blogosphere Still Growing

Blogs Burgeon To 50 Million, But Growth Is Slowing. K.C. Jones. Techweb (via Yahoo! News). August 8, 2006.
The number of blogs continues to double every 6 months, according to Technorati's latest State of the Blogoshpere report.

Search Engines and User Privacy

FAQ: Protecting Yourself from Search Engines. Declan McCullagh. CNET News.com. August 8, 2006.
Following AOL's leaking of the search histories of thousands of users, there is concern about the personal information search engines are keeping about us. This article, in question and answer format, addresses those issues.

OCLC Founder Frederick Kilgour Dies

Frederick G. Kilgour, Founder of OCLC, Dies at 92. OCLC. August 1, 2006.
OCLC's website features an appreciation of founder Kilgour, the innovator who pioneered the use of computers in libraries and the networking of library catalogs. (I well remember his addressing a class at the CWRU School of Library Science not long after his creation of WorldCat in 1971. He was quite an inspiration. As he spoke and answered our questions I realized that a new era was dawning in librarianship. )