LITA- Emerging Technologies Interest Group
January 23rd, 2006 by Ryan Langhurst
Topic: Discussion of emerging and “pressing” trends in technology effecting libraries.
The gist of it:
The discussion was mostly related to the 2006 ALA Annual New Orleans program and what this group’s agenda should include. The moderator (didn’t catch his name) suggested the convergence of audio/video into the “mobile lifestyle media platform”.
And in the beginning:
The discussion started with ebook technologies that are currently being developed such as Findaway World’s new Playaway device that plays a single audio book. This is a small (slightly larger than a business card & with less than a 1/2″ of depth) handheld device that comes with the information in it, unlike the Sony Reader, which can contain more than one selection that must be downloaded. The price point on the Playaway is understandably much less than the Sony Reader ($300-$500) and comes in around $35-$50. This is comparable to costs in the audio books cd market. You can either buy headphones to come with the Playaway or use your own. One of the positives: the device fits in the palm of your hand. One of the negatives: runs on a “AAA” battery. In a library setting: who’s going to replace the batteries for a collection of Playaway’s???
And then there was…
The other topic suggested to receive attention at 2006 Annual is Podcasting. Of particular note were the experiences of folks at Purdue University, where a professor took it upon himself to podcast his classes without the University’s assistance (others are now looking to him for guidance) and Emory University, where classrooms are built with technology for podcasting built-in and professor-friendly. Implications for public libraries??? Unknown. Please post comments if you have thoughts or suggestions.
Other Tidbits:
PDF continues to be the defacto content container for ebooks.
PDFa takes forever, plus one day, to download.
WebJunction is good, but what further can be done with it?
Other technologies/orgs making an impact: Overdrive, Audible, Open Content Alliance… and Apple’s IPod was cited as “doing one thing and doing it very well”. This was stated in the context of the potential for a book reader that will do wireless internet, bluetooth phone, calender, wash the dishes, etc– and to the point: a one for all approach may not work as well as the do one thing well approach. Time and market will tell…
Audio is hot right now.
Tags: ALAMidwinter2006, conferences
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January 29th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Just a quick note….regarding the podcasting discussion, just flip the names for who’s doing what. Purdue has classrooms wired for podcasting from a central recording room for any instructor who requests it (they use dark telephone lines to wire the mics), and Emory has the professor (Justin Gallivan) who started podcasting in the fall without waiting for anyone to support it at the institutional level.