HodgePodge
Posted On Apr 19 2007Nothing major really striking my fancy, but there has been a smattering of interesting news on the library technology front in the last couple of weeks. Free-gle Scholar Some scholarly societies are launching something that is either a counter to or a target for Google Scholar. Scitopia.org will launch this summer and include 3 million articles from 13 scholarly societies. The jury has not even gathered yet since it’s only April and the site will not launch until June, so I am left only to complain at this point that I don’t have any great love for press releases that …
Cream of the Blog
Posted On Apr 11 2007At a recent conference, I was having a conversation with one of the luminaries of library and information science education. We were debating a discussion from the library blogosphere. When I asked what his students thought, he replied somewhat glibly, “Students don’t read library blogs.” Ouch. You mean, they’re not hanging on our every word? What about our poignant insights? I felt like a tree that falls in the forest only to be heard by the other trees. But maybe some vendors can save the biblioblogosphere (are we still calling it that, cuz boy, it’s hard to type, let alone …
No Roaming
Posted On Mar 16 2007Things just got more interesting. I love a clever turn of phrase, and no matter what you think of vendors or their software, you gotta give props to VTLS for the “No Roaming” double entendre in this latest entry into library vendor intrigue. VTLS will be offering a free license to its integrated library system, Virtua, in return for a 3-year service contract (press release). Basically, it’s an alternative to waiting to migrate to another system, but is pointedly in response to SisriDynix’s recent announcement about its new platform, code-named “Rome.” Of course, there are the requisite rules and exceptions, …