Library Stuff

“Churnalism US is a new web tool and browser extension that allows anyone to compare the news you read against existing content to uncover possible instances of plagiarism. It is a joint project with the Media Standards Trust. Simply feed in a link or block of text to the Churnalism site or let the browser extension run in the background to notify you of any matches of text from Churnalism’s cache of documents.” (via Sunlight Foundation Blog)

“Want to read more self-published ebooks, but not sure how to find the good ones? The creators of a new service called StoryBundle hope to help by offering specially-selected collections of DRM-free ebooks in specific genres at a “pay-what-you-want” price. StoryBundle founder Jason Chen — a former technology and software editor for Gizmodo and Lifehacker — said the idea for the service came from his combined interest in reading and ebooks.”

via BOOK RIOT

“LibraryThing and Bowker® have launched BookPsychic, a new concept in readers advisory — a personal recommender system for libraries. BookPsychic is a service within LibraryThing for Libraries™, distributed by Bowker®, an affiliate of ProQuest. It went live at its first site earlier this month at Maine’s Portland Public Library. BookPsychic works by inviting library patrons to rate books using an interface that early users felt was familiar and intuitive. Books to rate and recommendations are split into simple genres, like “Recent Fiction,” “History” and “Home and Garden.” As patrons rate more books, the system learns more and more about their likes and dislikes, enabling the creation of “Just for You” recommendations.”

via Bowker

“When the Court resumes oral arguments in October, the Justices – along with the rest of us – will face an annual challenge:  how to pronounce the names of the parties in (just to name a few) cases like Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Kloeckner v. Solis, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, and Florida v. Jardines.  However, Eugene Fidell, a scholar and lecturer at Yale Law School, and a group of Yale students have solved this problem for many of the Court’s past cases with their Pronouncing Dictionary of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is hosted by the website of the Yale Law School library.”

via SCOTUSblog

“Like it or not, Wikipedia has evolved into a major go-to destination for those in search of knowledge. Whether it’s to swot up on the films of Laurel & Hardy, or discover what E=MC2 really means, Wikipedia has you covered on most fronts. But what about topics that go way over your head? Or what if they simply go into too much depth, or assume a little too much prior knowledge for your liking? That’s where Simple English Wikipedia comes in.”

via The Next Web

“The U.S. Census Bureau today released its first-ever mobile application, “America’s Economy,” which will provide constantly updated statistics on the U.S. economy, including monthly economic indicators, trends, along with a schedule of upcoming announcements. The app, which is currently available for Android mobile device users, combines statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. America’s Economy is the first mobile app from the Census Bureau that provides smartphone and tablet users with the real-time government statistics that drive business hiring, sales and production decisions and assist economists, researchers, planners and policymakers. The economic indicators track monthly and quarterly trends in industries, such as employment, housing construction, international trade, personal income, retail sales and manufacturing.”

via U.S. Census Bureau

“We’re happy to announce that the OverDrive Developer Portal is now open and accepting applications from interested developers. Our initial set of APIs gives third-party applications the ability to browse OverDrive digital media collections, search for titles, display detailed metadata for a given title, and determine the availability of a title within a given library collection. We’re excited to see the powerful new discovery tools our library, retail, and publishing partners develop to extend their digital catalogs to more readers around the globe.”

via OverDrive Blog

“To commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the National Archives is featuring Presidential records related to disability history on a new web research page at [www.archives.gov/research/americans-with-disabilities/]. The ADA was signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990 and was the first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities. The National Archives holds many records that relate to American citizens with disabilities. From personal letters to historic legislation, these records provide insight into efforts over the past century to establish programs and to protect the rights of people with disabilities.”

via National Archives

“A new smartphone app, due out this fall, will be able to provide a virtual tour of Arlington National Cemetery, list events there and help visitors locate gravesites. The new application will be available to the public in October, said Maj. Nick Miller, chief information officer for the cemetery. His team is already beta testing the app, which links geospatial mapping technology to digital records and tombstone photos. The app provides a real-time schedule of burials, wreath-laying ceremonies and other events at the cemetery. Employees there have been using a similar internal application since March to help manage daily activities at the cemetery.”

via The United States Army

“It’s in the nature of books that the vast majority of books any given person owns will not be in use at any given time. Under the circumstances, establishing vast municipal stockpiles of books for people to borrow is much more efficient than relying on a series of household stockpiles. But over time digital technology is eroding this rationale (the day has not yet come when every individual is equipped with a smartphone or tablet capable of reading e-books but it’s quite foreseeable), and it makes more sense to shift away from stockpiling of books and toward things like the Oakland Public Library’s tool lending program. I have a hammer, several scredrivers, a power drill, a hacksaw, and a bunch of other tools that I’m almost never using and households all over DC are in this very same position. The most successful libraries we be the ones who spend less time thinking “how do I extend my traditional reading-and-learning mission into the digital age” and more time thinking “what sort of club goods are being underprovided thanks to transaction costs, enforcement problems, and information issues.”

via Slate