Link to "Best Buy to recycle electronics for free".
Quote:
Beginning Sunday, Best Buy began allowing customers to bring two items per household per day into some stores in Baltimore, San Francisco, and Minnesota for free. But if you're looking to unload that mammoth front-projection TV--not so fast, there are some restrictions.
Included in the program are computers, phones, cameras, PC peripherals, and TVs with monitors smaller than 32 inches diagonal. Not included: larger TVs, air conditioners, microwaves, and large household appliances.
Hmmm.......let's see, if I get every staff member at the Middleton Public Library to participate, we might be able to get rid of the bulk of our outta-use just-collecting-dust inventory.
Monday, June 2, 2008
BookExpo America: Hand-Wringing over Electronic Books
Link to June 2 New York Times article, "Electronic Device Stirs Unease at Book Fair ".
Quote: Much of the talk was focused on the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic reader, which has gained widespread acclaim for its ease of use. Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, spent much of a packed session on Friday evangelizing about the Kindle, which he said already accounts for 6 percent of his company’s unit sales of books that are available in both paper and electronic formats.
To read some of the key findings from the 2008/2009 edition of "Library Use of E-Books", published by the Primary Research Group, click here. (The full report will cost you $75.)
A sampling of the findings.
How-to books were used occasionally by about 37% of the libraries in the sample, but most said that they were little used. Non-U.S. libraries reported higher use than did U.S.-based libraries.
Many libraries reported significant use of electronic directories. 12.5% reported extensive use and 30% said that use was significant. The larger libraries reported the heaviest use.
Quote: Much of the talk was focused on the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic reader, which has gained widespread acclaim for its ease of use. Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, spent much of a packed session on Friday evangelizing about the Kindle, which he said already accounts for 6 percent of his company’s unit sales of books that are available in both paper and electronic formats.
To read some of the key findings from the 2008/2009 edition of "Library Use of E-Books", published by the Primary Research Group, click here. (The full report will cost you $75.)
A sampling of the findings.
How-to books were used occasionally by about 37% of the libraries in the sample, but most said that they were little used. Non-U.S. libraries reported higher use than did U.S.-based libraries.
Many libraries reported significant use of electronic directories. 12.5% reported extensive use and 30% said that use was significant. The larger libraries reported the heaviest use.
Business books were among the most popular e-books, perhaps reflecting the great familiarity with electronic information in the corporate world and among students of that world. Nearly 23% of the libraries in the sample reported quite extensive use of their electronic collections of business books, and the same percentage reported significant use. Non-U.S. libraries reported even heavier use than did U.S. libraries.
Fiction e-books were not used extensively and close to 71% of libraries said that they were used little. Less than 10% reported extensive or significant use of fiction e-books.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
More Economic Gloom on the Horizon?
Link to June 1 New York Times article, "Think the Economy Is Bad? Wait Till the States Cut Back".
Quote: That share [of the economy] is gigantic. At $1.8 trillion annually in a $14 trillion economy, the states and municipalities spend almost twice as much as the federal government, including the cost of the Iraq war. When librarians, lifeguards, teachers, transit workers, road repair crews and health care workers disappear, or airport and school construction is halted, the economy trembles. None of that, or very little, has happened so far, not even in California, despite a significant decline in tax revenue.
We might need to gear up our local library advocacy networks like never before this fall budget season.
Quote: That share [of the economy] is gigantic. At $1.8 trillion annually in a $14 trillion economy, the states and municipalities spend almost twice as much as the federal government, including the cost of the Iraq war. When librarians, lifeguards, teachers, transit workers, road repair crews and health care workers disappear, or airport and school construction is halted, the economy trembles. None of that, or very little, has happened so far, not even in California, despite a significant decline in tax revenue.
We might need to gear up our local library advocacy networks like never before this fall budget season.
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