Author Archives: joneslata

Down with the eBook Part 2: I Installed the NOOK App for iPhone

My relationship with eBooks ebbs and it flows. One day I hate them and the next day I need them. Back in April of 2010 I expressed my love and loathing (mostly the latter) of eBooks. It’s been almost a year and since then, a few things have changed.

Early January I signed on to participate in the 52Poetry Challenge via Twitter. With this, you read one book of poetry every a week for the year; hence, the fifty two. As such, I was also participating in a Twitter discussion group of the recently released Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (#Lighthead) of which I volunteered to be the leader. The only problem was that I hadn’t yet received my copy of the book which I’d ordered from Amazon and the discussion was set to start in just a day. It wasn’t a major, major problem considering I wasn’t a discussion leader for a class assignment. But I’d made the commitment and I looked at it as another step in certifying my writer-self.

Anyhow, the moral and point of the above short story is that since the hardcopy copy (is that right?) that I ordered from Amazon hadn’t yet arrived, since the Library didn’t own a copy, since it was too late to try and order it through Interlibrary Loan, I had only one (maybe two) option: try to buy the eBook or step down as the discussion leader. And I’m sure you’ve already gleaned that I was not going to quit my post!

Because I’d received two Barnes and Noble gift cards (one as a graduation gift and one as a Christmas gift) in December, I went straight to barnesandnoble.com on my iPhone. I searched and perused, and found exactly what I was looking for.


(Let me back up just a moment—my iPhone 4 already had both the iBook and Kindle applications downloaded. I only chose NOOK because I had $40+ in gift cards for Barnes and Noble.)

I ended up spending the $9.99 for the NOOKBook and the $12.35+ for the hardcopy via Amazon. But again, I didn’t want to not participate in the Twitter discussion as the group leader. So yes, I wound up with two copies of the same book.

My mantra is no longer Down With the eBook. It’s Up With Cohabitation. While I do love, love, love to jot in the margins, and highlight passages and lines, the convenience of the eBook is undeniable. It has saved my hide in many a bind while in graduate school. The same situation that I found myself in with Lighthead has happened in several different literature courses. I’d buy a book online from Amazon or order it via Interlibrary Loan, but would end up (because I needed to read a chapter ASAP) on Google Books because I needed instant access.

I do still think that the physical book is being weeded out as I pointed out last April. And that point is not up for debate, really. But the other significant argument—that people are going to read less—is a true falsehood. The amount of reading material will, I think, increase. It is increasing; it has increased. With the advent of the Internet, we are inundated with massive amounts of stuff to read. The issue isn’t that people will not read anymore. The issue is that people are reading massive amounts of unvetted material. Fact-checkless and not peer-reviewed content—these are the problems that ought be focused on.

[Insert your local librarian here.]

They have, after all, the necessary training and wherewithal to help you differentiate between a credible source and everything else.

I will always stand for the real book, I think. But I also think it is necessary, in an effort to stay relevant and up-to-date, to familiarize yourself with trends as they develop. You have to either get with the times or get lost and left behind. Many of the students, faculty, and staff who come to the Service Desk will ask if the book or journal they are looking for is available electronically. If it’s not the first question, it’s the second. They are studying for a test as they travel home. They want to have access to NCLEX study questions while on the beach. Medical terminology texts that can fit on their hip, in their purse or pocket. I’d again be remiss to not know how these eBooks worked with smart devices.

It is easier and convenient, finally, to carry my iPhone loaded with books of poetry instead of eight (8) separate books. Still, though, I would prefer to carry both my device and my books. One is only made better by the other.

Project Homeless Connect: The Laupus Drive

November is National Homelessness Awareness Month.

However, Laupus is advocating and promoting action now and throughout the month of March.

On behalf of Project Homeless Connect and in cooperation with the Diversity Committee, we will be sponsoring a food and donations drive February 7th-17th.

We are collecting very specific items:

  • Handi-Snacks cheese and crackers
  • Juice boxes
  • Restaurant gift cards (Bojangles’, Hardee’s, Taco Bell, etc.)
  • Pudding and fruit cups
  • White crew socks**
  • Tuna and chicken snack packs

**A much needed item.

Monetary donations are also accepted. 100% of proceeds will be used for the purchase of drive items.

Drop boxes are located in Laupus the 2nd Floor and in the breakroom.

What is Project Homeless Connect?

On Wednesday, March 2, 2011, the Pitt County Planning will be hosting the county’s first “Project Homeless Connect” event at the Greenville Convention Center as part of its 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Project Homeless Connect is a one-day, one-stop event to provide a broad range of services to people experiencing, or at risk of, experiencing homelessness. Most importantly, the event is outcome-oriented; it is not just a day for people to wait in line, but a day for people to make changes, and for guests to have immediate access to community services. Participants will interact face-to-face with the many human services agencies in the Pitt County area and foster increased understanding of the societal implications which homelessness in our community raises, through the sharing of information and experience.

For more information and for other ways that you may help, please visit the Project site.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, direct them to Casey Holland (hollandc@ecu.edu).

Social Media Librarian?

Twitter. Facebook. Xanga. Myspace. Yammer. Ning. WordPress. YouTube. Blogspot.

And that’s just to name a few.

Social media–media (information, really) that is created to be shared freely, and allows for conversation exchanges–is the future. It is the now. You can’t go very far during any given day without having come in contact with one form or another. The mass media is notorious for pulling quotes from Twitter feeds and getting information about a person straight from their Facebook account. It’s proved to be among the most efficient ways to disseminate information right now and to get the attention of a specific demographic, like college students, for example. It’s how I stay in continued contact with my immediate family; we’re constantly updating pictures, and letting each other know of our comings and goings. I’ve even found some of my favorite visual artists and authors, and am kept better updated on their activities and events.

Laupus has this blog, a Facebook and Twitter account, and even a channel on YouTube. We’re even connected on AIM. (Though, that one may or may not be considered social media.) The connection factor is the major reason (if not the only one) why having an active footing in the social network scene is integral to varying perspectives of success. It’s ever important for an institution as large and as unheard as a library tends to be to keep up with trends.

Consider these questions as they pertain to the Library’s stake in the social media craze:

  • Is oversight for social media accounts and activity assigned to a single librarian?
  • Should the same staff member who oversees marketing and public relations take on social networking, as well?
  • Are all library workers empowered to contribute to the effort?

The most important question, I think, posed by the ACRL is this one: Does librarianship need to provide more opportunity for LIS students to gain these [social media] skills, and if so how should it happen? As in, should LIS programs devote entire classes to social media usage, methodology? I venture to say, yes they should.

The Library doesn’t have a choice, really. It’s a matter of staying connected and staying relevant. Your patrons want to see you on Facebook and Twitter? Get on Facebook and Twitter. Really, it’s just that simple. As a marketing and promotional tool, social media cannot and should not be pushed to the wayside. It’s not enough anymore to notify people of changes and updates via email or a poster or flyer. You’ve got to go where they are. You’ve got to know how to manipulate social media outlets. How can you better influence a library user and what wordage or images might help in doing so. This, I think, would be a beneficial course or the LIS student. If a social media librarian isn’t in your immediate future, you might want to consider rethinking your five-year plan.

As a graduate student, I like the idea of knowing that my primary library makes updates about hours, resources, et cetera via these venues, because I am on them so heavily. (I’ve even got apps on my Blackberry.) As a lover and proponent of the Library, I can rest a little easier in the idea of knowing that it’s not getting dusty and rusty and reeking of moth balls. It’s maintaining a sense of modernity.

The best way to reach today’s student and user is viral marketing.  I say, get with it or get left behind!


Also, check this out! Is There A Social Media Librarian In Your Library’s Future?

“Down with the eBook!”

My top secret topic is not really a topic. It is a response. It is a retort, if you will, but with very little anger or snidery. From April 7th by Amy Blevins, Are [You] Ready to Embrace etextbooks?

Hardly.

My most recent and mocked mantra in the Library has been “Down with the eBook!” If I overhear someone–a colleague–talking about a Kindle, for instance, I interrupt with my emphatic chant. It seems a little excessive and extremist; it seems to go against the very essence of progression and technological development that the Library supports and encompasses. This is the natural order of things, no? The promulgation of electronic books is inevitable. We are, generally, a people all about the now, now, now. Instant gratification is in vogue. It is expected.

But, I worry (and some people tell me my concern is unfounded) that the book–the tangible piece of art (and it is art!), the artifact that develops a musty aroma as it ages–will end up where floppy disks, vinyl records, and even compact discs are. On display in museums, in the dank homes of obsessive collectors, in the Land of the Forgotten. They will be auctioned on eBay, sold to the highest book bidder. I’ve joked that my house will be a sanctuary for unwanted and discarded books. Only, I don’t think I am joking.

Not too long ago, I attended one of the Downtown Dialogues on the Humanities series. After the speakers presented on “Dante’s Book of Nature” and “Books in the British Romantic Period,” after questions were asked of them, and after they responded, the discussion among attendees turned into a lively debate. The topic at hand: the unclear and ill-fated future of the physical book. Granted, the debaters were English professors, and foreign language and literature scholars; they may well appreciate and view the book in a vastly disparate way in comparison to a physical therapist or a nursing instructor. The book for the humanities is not quite the same as the book for the sciences. Wouldn’t you agree? Well, I think so.

Advances in science and health-related research requires constant updating. Books published just in 1995 on the treatment of cancer or heart disease are now considered out-dated. We would not recommend a fifteen year old book to anyone. (Unless it is about theory or anatomy—things that ostensibly do not change.) A literary work published in 1959, like A Raisin in the Sun, is and may always be considered timeless and ends up on many, many reading/must watch lists. It is still a recommended read.

There is an undeniable difference. But the debate at the Dialogues brought up valid points, still. The physical book is being, literally, weeded out. Whereas it used to be a commodity for the well-off, it is now for anyone with access to a computer. The book has lost its value. Surely, people are reading and probably more than ever. But, are they checking out a hardback at their local library? No, they’re logging on to the Library’s computers and reading…Facebook, blogs, gossip.

I’d be remiss to deny that I’ve used an eBook. I certainly have and on more than one occasion. An eBook is more efficient for quote/fact checking. It is convenient when the library closes at 5, and you do not get off or out of class until 6. It is convenient if you are a DE student. But, to completely replace the physical book for the virtual one…that is tantamount to blasphemy.

My library colleagues remind me that the physical book will never go extinct, it will never completely disappear. But, it is hard to remain objective or optimistic when I am bearing witness to it disappearance. I fear I am among a minority here even though the proof is in the pudding. I cannot even get with the argument that eBooks are better for the environment. Keep in mind that it was once a widely accepted notion that the introduction of and widespread use of computers would decrease the amount of paper used and wasted, the overall amount of paperwork. But, that has not been the case. With the computer came the printer. With the printer came overflowing trash cans and recycle bins.

And in conclusion, Amy, call me old-fashioned and hokey, but I am not ready to [completely] embrace the eBook. I am, however, ready to embrace equality—the physical book and the virtual book ought to exist in harmony.