In "OverDrive": The Digital Bookmobile

Link to the Digital Bookmobile, found while reading this August 11 PW online post, "Vendor Vehicle Showcases Library's Digital Offerings".

From the Digital Library "About Us" page:

The Digital Bookmobile is a community outreach vehicle for public libraries to promote downloadable eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video. Developed inside a 74-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer, the nationally touring vehicle is a high-tech update of the traditional bookmobile that has served communities for decades.

The Digital Bookmobile creates an engaging download experience around the host library's digital media collection and 'Virtual Branch' download website. The vehicle is equipped with broadband Internet-connected PCs, high-definition monitors, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players. Interactive computer stations give visitors an opportunity to search the digital media collection, use supported mobile devices, and sample eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video from the library.

The Digital Bookmobile is hosted by individual public libraries in support of their download services and is operated by OverDrive, Inc. To see if your public library offers download books and more, visit the Digital Media Locator.

Bookmobile schedule as of 8/4/2008 lists stops through August 13.

See also....

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

A birds'-eye view of the bookmobile is available on Flickr.

Making History Accessible

Link to August 11 JSOnline article, "Historical Society publishes non-traditional Wisconsin textbook".

Excerpt:

More than 220 classroom sets of the new "Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story" fourth-grade state history textbook have been purchased by districts around the state, including several in the Milwaukee area, and some of the accompanying guides haven't even finished printing yet.

Those involved expect that as other districts come due for textbook adoption in the coming years, the book from the Wisconsin Historical Society will become the pre-eminent state history guide for elementary students.

"From a fourth-grade teacher's perspective, this is the best textbook we've ever had," said John Hallagan, a teacher at Magee Elementary in Genesee Depot.

The reason? It teaches content - good stories, people, places, maps, facts - and encourages critical thinking.

"That's a significant improvement over how history is usually taught," said Hallagan, who criticizes the method of teaching that relies on having kids memorize dates and sequence facts.

And It'll Fit Better on Your Library Shelves

Rolling Stone, issue #1

Link to August 10 New York Times article, "The Classic Rock Magazine Is Switching to a Smaller, Rack-Friendly Size".

Excerpt:

Some packages like the curvaceous old Coke bottle become so iconic that they are recognizable at 30 paces. So it is with Rolling Stone, whose large format has stood out on magazine racks for more than three decades. It won’t for much longer, however. With the Oct. 30 issue, which will go on sale Oct. 17, Rolling Stone, published by Wenner Media, will adopt the standard size used by all but a few magazines.

In an interview in his office, Jann Wenner. founder, publisher, editor and general guiding force behind the nation’s biggest music magazine, was characteristically brash about the change. Leaning back in his chair, one leg slung over the side of it, he said, “All you’re getting from that large size is nostalgia.”

But as he knows well, nostalgia is a powerful marketing force, as is a package that instantly evokes not only the product, but an era. It is tempting to apply that logic to a 41-year-old magazine that seems to put as many pensioners as teenagers on its cover, but Rolling Stone’s readership, bigger than it has ever been, has a surprisingly young median age, in the early 30s, according to market research firms.