Anzac Day 2011 - a personal reflection

This has absolutely nothing to do with being a librarian but I have been reflecting today on what Anzac day means for me.

My day was a WWII veteran who went to New Guinea and Japan with the BCOF (British Commonwealth Forces) troops after the war.

He was a proud Australian, a gentle loving man who was proud of serving his country. He went away as a young man who believed in freedom and was passionate about that.

To me that's what ANZAC Day is about - our freedom and the sacrifices these young men gave for their country.

At times I hear people display great intolerance in this country the "language" used about boat people is a classic example.

I think our Veterans would be appalled at the intolerance shown to some sections of our community and wilst they may not agree with alternative lifestyles or beliefs many of them gave their lives to ensure that we could be "different" and free to be who we want to be.

The statements that the diggers would not be fighting for the Muslims or gays that have been reported today are appalling and show great disrespect to our diggers I believe. They fought and gave there lives so we could be free not for a particular group or belief.

There is a huge difference !!

Do we really want to be that intolerant of each other? We don't have to agree with a viewpoint or lifestyle but lets respect the rights of people to have that belief or lifestyle. That's the freedom that our diggers gave me.

Thanks Dad

A reply from Amazon regarding the KIndle

I got an email from Amazon last night saying loaning the Kindle is not on. Its reproduced for those that may be interested..

" Hello John,

I am sorry that you have not received any answer to this question.

I have consulted the Kindle Management Team and they have advised that public loaning of a Kindle is in breech to the terms of use of the Kindle and Kindle content. The public lending of a Kindle breeches the Digital content section of the Terms & Conditions of use for the Kindle.

"Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial us"

You can read the full terms and conditions of use for the Kindle at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_bc_nav?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200144520

I am sorry that I do not have better news, but I hope this information helps..."

Its either in the too hard basket for Amazon or the not part of their business plan i guess more's the pity. Amazon have a potential world wide market for libraries if only they would be creative in their thinking regarding libraries.

Pretty much kills the lending of Kindle's in my library and i suspect a lot of my colleagues in public libraries here in Australia.

I have to admit the iPad from apple may have possibilities, i will certainly be investigating this option.

The Kindle and Public libraries

Thought it was about time to update this blog as its been a while.

I was given a Kindle for christmas, its an interesting device and i have grown to like it. I can adjust font size when im reading and wait for it, if the publisher allows it, a text to speech function is enabled and voila we have an audio book very very cool.

If i switch it off the Kindle remembers the page I am on which is very smart.

This got me thinking, does the kindle have a place in public libraries? I think it does. A web search has revealed several public libraries in the states are using them with success.

The next challenge is, how might it be implemented in my library, here are my thoughts.

1. The Kindle allows for a ebook purchased from the Kindle store on Amazon to be shared on up to 5 devices so lets purchase one and load 10 titles to start with.

2. Allow borrowers access to the kindle store to select 5 titles each time they borrow the Kindle and add it to a Kindle wish list, this functionality exists on the device as standard . This creates a borrower wish list-great for selection. This is not my idea a US library already does it.

3. I am still pondering the issue of how long we loan the device - my thinking its why should it be ant different from a standard loan.

4. The other pondering is what happens if the device is damaged/lost or even should i treat it as a value added service and charge?

Me being a good boy :) decided to contact Amazon in the states to ask what their attitude is to Kindles in public libraries. I think its in the too hard basket lol, they promised to get back to me monday night, its now 24 hours later and still no information from them.

A good lesson for us as librarians, good customer service is about communication and telling people why we can't do something for them rather than keeping them guessing.

The customer service person was very attentive he indicated he hoped to get back to me monday night. Outstanding customer service would have been for him to ring tonight and say "John its taking longer than i hoped to get you an answer we estimate xxx" that would have been outstanding in my books. Currently I am hoping Amazon will contact me but they get a Fail at the moment and I am not holding my breath.

Enough of my rant :) does anyone have any thoughts about the kindle and public libraries?

QPLA townsville conference

It has been a busy few weeks culminating with me going to this weeks QPLA conference in Townsville. It was great to see colleagues who i have not seen in years from all over Australia and for a nice change I only had a one hour drive to get there yay!

The conference was thought provoking and i came away with many challenges none the least, is the word "librarian' sexy enough to describe what we do? A speaker pointed out that in the next 10-15 years a huge percentage of the profession will retire and younger librarians are not staying in the profession and moving up the "food chain" because we are seen as not "sexy enough" using the word library or librarian to describe what we do. Certainly food for thought.

tagging on the OPAC

Here's something I have been pondering and as yet don't know which way to go

in the SirsiDynix discussion lists there has been a bit of discussion about the need to allow users to be able to add tags to books they have read on the OPAC.

The question being asked is do users really care and will they be bothered when our subject headings are really another way of "tagging" resources in our collections.

food for thought i feel.

What a busy last few weeks

Boy have we been busy firstly with children's book week with over 600 kids in the library and last weekend the Sunwater Water Festival with the crowning of the Water Festival senior Ambassador who by the way is a member of our library team. Congratulations Carly

The world of twitter

Its been a while since the last posting the library team have been flat out. But guess what... we have found time to begin a tentative exploration into twitter. You will find us on http://twitter.com/BurdekinLibraries . Hopefully people will subscribe and visit us on twitter.