It's Academic

Celebrate National Library Week, April 10-16, 2011!  Even academic libraries can take part in this yearly celebration.  Academic libraries are an important component to the college experience, and this is an opportunity to showcase some of our most valuable resources while having fun.  For example, the Mary Kintz Bevevino Library at Misericordia University has events planned for the entire week.  Some of the events include: a used book sale, a bake sale, a basket raffle, a hot dog sale, a book cart decorating contest, and a guest speaker who will present on life, traditions, and customs of India.  Events can be as a simple or as extravagant as your budget and time will allow.  Library vendors are more than happy to send promotional items that can be used as door prizes and local businesses are happy to contribute to the prize list as well.  During National Library Week at Misericordia, Access Services accepts Food for Fines.  Students are encouraged to bring in non-perishable food items as payment for library fines.  The donated items are then sent to the local food pantry.

It is sure to be an exciting week.  Don’t forget to stop by a library next week and celebrate!

How can academic libraries keep themselves at the center of their institution when it is everywhere? With both physical and virtual students and faculty, the library must provide a variety of access points and do some serious marketing to get these groups engaged with the services and resources it offers, digitally and in print, for information and for entertainment.

Library Journal is sponsoring this free 60 minute Webcast on Wednesday, April 27 at 2:00 PM EDT. For more information or to register for this event go to www.libraryjournal.com/academiclibraryservices

As Juliet asked Romeo “What’s in a name. That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare) so we as librarians are asking each other if the moniker e-book is a relevant name in the era of electronic publication.  Is an e-book just a collection of data, in essence a database? Should we come up with a new word for the concept of e-book?  Or is this something that will naturally change as technology evolves? If an electronic textbook includes multimedia and interactivity is it still an e-book?  Will the term e-book eventually sound as old fashioned as horseless carriage?  What do you think?

Additional reading:
Click and Jane, by Virginia Heffernan http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01wwln-medium-t.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

E-books and Their Containers: A Bestiary of the Evolving Book, posted by Joseph Esposito http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/01/18/e-books-and-their-containers/

– Valerie Lynn, Member at Large, CRD