Ohio Library Budgets

A huge "thank-you" to all of you who helped make the library budget cuts a bit less awful! 25-30% less than last year is still a big hit, but certainly better than 50%.

Free, catalogued, digital books

The University of Michigan's OAIster (Find the pearls) Project is worth checking out. It has full access to nearly 20 million digital books, with the option of adding them to your own catalog for your patrons. I first became aware of it from a genealogy blog on my RSS feeds, and I have to say, it's impressive. Contributors are from over 1000 universities and repositories worldwide. Here's the link: http://www.oaister.org/about.html

Flock, WebAnywhere and Cuil

I'm not really posting anymore except randomly as the mood strikes me, but I have seen a few interesting things lately that I want to mention. First, the new browser Flock, which lets you have your social apps right there. I need to play with it some more to decide if I like it better than Mozilla.
Next, and the one I find most exciting, is Webanywhere, a web-based free screenreader. http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/ It's in ALPHA release, so have some patience! It's great that there is no big download required, and I got it to start reading our library webpage quite easily.
Finally, the new search engine Cuil. I like the clean interface, but so far haven't tried it enough to have an opinion. Just wanted to mention these in case anyone actually reads this and wonders if I am still checking out new stuff. The anwer is yes!

New Blog at Our Library

We have a handy new blog at our library, which replaces our old "News You Can Use" link with a much more convenient format. Here's the link: http://nucuplymc.blogspot.com/

Michigan Library Wiki, Ohio U's Alden Library Video

Check it out: Michigan Library Consortium has a Michigan Libraries Wiki open to staff, trustees, and friends. Here is the link: http://www.mlcnet.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page I'm a fan Of MeL, the Michigan Electronic Library, so am always on the lookout for anything they're doing up north.
Also, Alden Library at O.U. has a pretty neat video, all about what it has to offer. Here's the link to it their website, which contains the YouTube.

My point is that a lot of libraries are making good use of new technology, and I'm hoping my library readers like to see what others are doing.

More about accessibility

Sometimes people tell me things. Today, someone mentioned an elderly relative who uses a walker not liking a particular library location in his town for several reasons. I've heard variations on this theme several times before, and thought I'd share some of these things plus a thought or two of my own. Back to the things I've heard: frequently, those who use walkers, crutches, or have orthopedic problems happen also to be elderly, and make use of things such as large print books. They do not want to have to go to the back of a large building to get to them,
and good lighting and a chair are nice when they arrive. And it's even better if they are not right next to the teen or toddler area. Granted, everything in a building can't be five feet from the entrance, but thoughtful placement is important. And floor surfaces that don't echo with every step are nice for everyone, with a nice even surface for canes and wheelchairs, and baby strollers, and book trucks, too. And as you may or may not know, some impairments are invisible; accessible parking places are often NOT very close to an entrance, which may be a short distance for someone in a wheelchair, but might be impossibly far for someone with COPD (chronic obstrucitve pulmonary disease, or "breathing trouble" for civilians).

Now, I don't think anyone ever purposely designs things in an impractical manner, or maliciously makes navigation difficult, but I do think there are a lot of people who, through no fault of their own, are oblivious to these types of concerns. With the whole world competing for one's limited attention, it may be the case that someone has never had any type of disability, temporary or permanent, and has not closely associated with others who have or do. Hence, no real awareness of accessibility is needed. We all routinely filter out information we don't need, otherwise we'd be overloaded. But there aren't many of us who at a later time haven't looked back and wished we'd paid more attention to something that seemed irrelevant at the time.

Signing Time! on PBS

Look above to see a YouTube of the children's book Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin. I was actually in search of an animated avatar with a disability when I stumbled across this, and had to post it.

Then I found footage of Signing Time! from PBS http://www.signingtime.com/and thought it deserves a mention. If you've been following my blog at all, you are already aware that Odiogo will read the entries aloud.

I like to play and am particularly interested in assistive technology of all kinds and plan to mention more of it here.