The Life of Books

Breaking Through to the Other Side

2008-05-08T10:54:00.003-05:00

For years now, much of library conversations have been about books vs. online sources. I've always rejected the notion that we need to make choices between the two formats. There's no war going on, and I think that the "death of the book" pundits always understate the value of print, at the expense of some fundamental values that libraries possess, vis a vis collecting, sorting and storing information for researchers and scholars.

Well, it occurred to me this morning that the whole debate is nonsense. Fights over format are purely economic and commercial. What our job is, as librarians, is to understand and organize the bibliography of law - regardless of format. Whoopty-doo, some firm or developer is developing a really cool website or search engine. Does that mean that books are dead or dying? Who cares?! It merely means that we have yet another neat tool for research, and the law has found yet another neat place to dwell.

And so it goes.

PARC Developing "Erasable" Printer Paper!

2008-04-30T09:29:00.005-05:00

In a bizarre twist of I-don't-know-what, PC Magazine reports that PARC is working on developing reusable printer/copier paper. The idea is that most print jobs are for temporary purposes, such as printing emails, after which they are discarded. This paper, which is light-activated, fades after about a day and then can be re-used up to 100 times. Robert Scobel even has a Qik video of it: http://qik.com/video/66798

The implication for libraries? Heck, simply print out newspapers or articles on demand and have patrons return the paper to the desk.... Who knows?

4DigitalBooks Makes Book Scanning Look Fun and Easy!

2008-04-24T13:46:00.002-05:00

Gizmodo reported about a cool hands-free book scanner from Swiss company, 4DigitalBooks. The new machine, the DL 3000 will scan 3000 pages an hour with no human innovation to mess things up. Sweet. And it only costs $250,000, according to Giz.... So don't look for it in your local library any time soon. Read all about it on the company's website:

http://www.4digitalbooks.com/

"EDUCATING LAWYERS" (PARTIAL REVIEW)

2008-04-03T14:41:00.005-05:00

I'm just starting to read a fascinating book, "Educating Lawyers," by Sullivan, Colby, Wenger, Bond and Shulman. It's a book about legal education (obviously) published in conjunction with The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. I'm going to be commenting on it from time time as I read through it looking for information on how legal research factors into the authors' view of legal education as a skill.

Two immediate reactions jump out: First, there is no entry in the index for legal research. But there are several for legal writing. Why is this? Are writing instructors more vocal than librarians, who clearly have the ultimate responsibility, not to mention the expertise, for training law students in the techniques and theories of legal research? If this is so, this clearly indicates that librarians have dropped an important ball. Or is it that research is much more intangible than writing skills which produces something tangible, such as a document, and is therefore overlooked? In this case, librarians have dropped the ball in approaching the topic of legal research as a substantive course of study. I think that it's the latter.

Research is a skill that depends on intimate knowledge of how legal information works (where it comes from and where it goes and how), much more than a study of how to use different tools of legal bibliography.

Second, there is a very curious and surprising sentence in the Introduction, on page 6, in the third line of that page, "Students taught from Langdell's case books were being introduced by their professors to legal research, much as a laboratory or seminar professor in the arts and sciences of those days would have led students to grasp the principles organizing the particular domain..... Through this new procedure, Langdell updated a central tradition of classical jurisprudence: American law was now to be analyzed by academic specialists and criticized in the light of general ideas and principles." This is a very insightful observation. But it presumes the existence and respect of secondary sources and a complex system of organizing case law. As students are introduced to legal principles through the study of cases, treatises and cross-referencing systems aid the student and lawyer to get to the materials needed to answer specific research questions.

But here is where the book gets interesting. The first full paragraph contains this gem: "In the first place, up-to-date legal scholarship was to turn the jumble of court decisions into synthetic overviews or treatises that could organize and explain various areas of the law. Then the school would train future lawyers the way scientists are trained, teaching them to do legal research amid actual cases in the library...." This is a very key observation. Just as Kent, Bacon and even the writers of the classic encyclopedias and the restatements saw their role as attempts to simplify and synthesize the rules of law that were buried amid a morass of ambiguous and sometimes contradictory case law, all treatises and secondary materials' primary importance is in their ability synthesis and clearly state what are the rules of law. (Royalties and ego stroking notwithstanding.)

This is a key element of what legal research instructors must get across to our students: we must educate them to understand that treatises aren't merely old-fashioned legacies of the past; they are valuable tools that help skilled researchers get to the heart of the matter.

In light of the rise of online services and their ability to bring researchers into direct access to primary materials, this is a very interesting observation indeed. If you cut out the middle man, ie, the treatise writer/scholar who produces secondary material, efficiency in researching will not only decline (to the online services great benefit, because researchers will spend more time online trying to make heads or tails out of case law), but it may lead to the sort of crisis in our legal system such as Kent warned about in his commentaries, volume one, page 441-442 (1826): "The evils resulting from an indigestible heap of laws, and legal authorities, are great and manifest. They destroy the certainty of the law, and promote litigation, delay and subtilty [sic]."

Online services' great virtue is that they bring researchers face to face with primary sources. Online services greatest curse is that it brings researchers face to face with primary sources, without mediation. This is a very dangerous thing, indeed.

Where Were the Lawyers When....?

2008-03-20T08:49:00.001-05:00

People are up in arms about the big air tanker contract going to Airbus (a foreign company). Where were the protesters when foreign nationals took over the publication of US laws? Good grief, West, Lexis, CCH, Aspen, Matthew-Bender, RIA, Lawyer's Co-Op are all now owned by Canadian, British or Dutch companies. That's got to amount to nearly 90% of all commercial legal materials. And now they're squeezing us for every penny we own, and most of that revenue is flowing outside the US. Isn't that something to be protested?

There were protestations, to be sure. But compared to the uproar about the air tankers, narry a peep!

Time for New Classification System?

2008-03-19T04:23:00.001-05:00

The character of legal information is changing in the fact that the breadth of what qualifies as legal information is changing. Just as librarians have struggled in the past with incorporating new formats into existing collections and classification schemes, we need now to be creative in figuring out how to capture, preserve and classify new mercurial formats such as podcasts, blogs and twitters.... The adjective "mercurial" only describes a fraction of the challenge....

Truth is Sometimes Stranger than Fiction

2008-03-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

I heard about this on TWiT a couple of weeks ago and I've been telling people about it since then. No one believes that it can be real. Well, it is: Google is investigating a service that serves up broadband wireless by attaching access points to balloons (yes, balloons) and then floating them into the atmosphere where the rise until they pop and then parachute back to earth where lucky finders can redeem them for 50-100 dollars a pop. Sound bizarre? Check out this video reported by Gizmodo....

http://gizmodo.com/358940/google-may-buy-a-balloon-company-to-build-huge-wireless-networks

What's an "Inforcrat"?

2008-03-18T16:03:00.000-05:00

I just returned from a trip to Washington, DC. I was equipped with my iPod Touch and my MacBook Pro - hey I'm fully connected - and ready for anything. But you know what? I couldn't use either device for email of web-browsing anywhere in two airports (Omaha and National), the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Starbucks and Georgetown University School of Law! Why? I don't have subscriptions to the "pay as you go wi-fi" at the airports, hotel or Starbucks and I'm locked out of the Georgetown network because I'm a visitor. In the course of a stimulating visit in DC in which we discussed the future of law libraries, it occurred to me that if the future is becoming digital, then who will have access to digital information?

Well, the answer is becoming more and more, "The people who pay and the people who are somehow or other on the inside track." What are the ramifications for our democracy? More and more, it may turn out that the "haves" are becoming the "infocrats", if that's a word. How will libraries be able to maintain their roles as custodians of the culture if they can only provide access to information to those who have Kindles, iPhones, Blackberrys or the like? Isn't our challenge to maintain free unbridled access to public information in the face of the digital age?

Hmmmm.

Do Publishers Read Newspapers?

2008-03-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

It seems to me that law publishers - of all people - should be aware of the funding crisis in (public) academe. I'm not sure that any law libraries or law schools are getting funding increases, so how do they get off raising costs at all? We, here at the University of Nebraska haven't received a budget increase in eight years. But our vendors are all increasing prices five to ten percent! How do they expect us to afford the increases, much less purchase new products like MOML, MOML Trials, etc....

Ken Svengalis to Appear on first Episode of the "The Law Librarian"

2008-03-16T09:20:00.000-05:00

I am going to experiment with a call-in internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio. Brian Striman will co-host with me on May 2 during which we will interview Ken and discuss the challenge of managing libraries in the face of shrinking public funding and out of hand inflation from information providers. The show will be one hour on Friday afternoon and will accept call-ins from listeners as well as chat and Twitter comments.

More information as it develops.

Internet and Legislative History

2008-03-05T09:04:00.000-06:00

Legislative history is, essentially, whatever sources you can find that help reveal the intent of the legislative body in it's conduct, usually passing legislation. But the principle also applies to actions of the executive branch, and, therefore, includes hearings, speeches, correspondence, reports (commissioned or otherwise), and whatever else a resourceful researcher can uncover or discover.

Today, blogs, webpages and email will qualify as sources of legislative history. And there's a lot of it. I think that this turns the whole idea of understanding teaching of legal research on it's head: it's not about the sources or knowing what they are, it's understanding how information gets from one place to another. Where do legislative ideas come from? Where do they go? How do they get there?

Think Using Books is Easy?

2008-02-18T16:37:00.000-06:00

Click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM

and pity the poor early adopters.....

'Kneed' Extra Power to Keep You Mobile Device Up and Running?

2008-02-08T09:46:00.000-06:00

Gizmodo reports on a device created by researchers at the University of Michigan that harvests the energy of the knee to power cell phones or other handheld devices. Great news for people who have chronically dead phones: They just need to be convinced to get up and walk around....

"Digital Collections" – An Oxymoron?

2008-01-03T22:48:00.000-06:00

It occurred to me recently that the term, "digital collection" may well be an oxymoron. When libraries 'purchase' a digital collection, it is usually a license, not a purchase at all. How can libraries collect licenses? When a publisher decides to drop a file or database from an online service, what is a library to do about it? We can insist on paying less for the service, but that's about it. Libraries are the repositories of civilization, but if the record of our civilization is all digital and we libraries try to collect it, we are left with nothing - ultimately. What do we own? A file folder filled with contracts.

An example of this recently rocked the law library world when suddenly, without warning, it appeared that Lexis dropped Tax Notes from their service. This has happened with other services. Contract issues between information providers and Lexis or Westlaw have affected the services available to Lexis and Westlaw subscribers. For example, if you don't subscribe to various BNA titles, either in print or electronically, you can't get access to them through Lexis or Westlaw. So, in this modern age, a library charged with collecting, preserving and making available to researchers valuable information (including historical information) can no longer guarantee that what it has 'collected' is still in its collection.

So what are we collecting? Information or information about information?

Oy Yoi Yoi! Bezos Declares Himself the New Gutenberg!

2007-11-18T16:40:00.000-06:00

OK. Who doesn't want to be the Leonardo, Gutenberg or Edison of his day? But do you get there by declaring it to be so? Or do you wait around for posterity to declare that you're special? It seems to me that humility is an important aspect of greatness. At least in the present. Edison may have been a keen self-promoter, but history proved him correct in whatever he may have thought about his accomplishments. Heck. Did he need to brag about the lightbulb? His invention was destined to place him the history books, because it worked.

The Amazon Kindle hasn't even been released yet, and he's already got Newsweek quoting him as saying that he's going to improve the book, the way he "improved" the bookstore. Good grief.

First of all, is Amazon.com an improvement over Borders, Tattered Covers or Barnes and Noble? It may be an easy way to shop while you're at work, but I'm not sure that it's an improvement on wandering the stacks of Tattered Covers or Strand bookstores.

Second, how do you improve on a book? By making it digital? How does that improve a technology that's been around before Gutenberg? Think about it. The old-fashioned book works every time, requires no power source and is simple to use. (I've never had a patron ask for help using a book! The most ignorant patron in the world can figure out how to lift a cover....) They can be dropped and work with light. Anything digital is going to rely on a myriad number of associated technologies for them to operate. And if they're not all working in harmony. Who knows what kind of kind technological "adventures" are in store? What's more, will a Kindle be guaranteed to work in 200 years? My copy Bushrod Washington's biography of George Washington still works as well today as it did when published nearly 200 years ago.

Call me a cynic, but I just don't yet buy Jeff Bezos as the new Gutenberg. I'm sure it will sell some books. But it's not going to make me toss any of my prized books any time soon. It's a gimmick, Jeff. Not a revolution.

Of course, I'd sure love to have one....

Whole New Meaning to "Ripping Books"?

2007-11-18T13:24:00.000-06:00

Gizmodo reports that Atiz Innovation Co., Ltd., a leading manufacturer of book digitization hardware and software, has announced the development of "BookSnap", a personal book scanner that allows the user to digitize, "rip," her own books. The Atiz website, http://www.atiz.com/, declares, on it's home page, that "It's not a scanner. It's a book ripper." It also declares that it allows the user to transform books into PDF's at 500 pages per hour. Assuming that you can turn the pages that fast, that means that you can convert your copy of "No Country for Old Men" into a digital book in about a half-hour.

The website is silent on the platform on which their software runs, or what kinds o ebook readers that the resulting books can be displayed. Since BookSnap converts books into PDF's, we know that books ripped in this way can be read on your computer or any device that will handle PDF's.

Of "On Demand Publishing" and "Over Publishing"

2007-11-14T19:09:00.000-06:00

TradingMarkets.com posted this interesting article which highlights Espresso, the on-demand book publishing machine that was announced recently. The ironies are frightening. Kinko's can become a bookstore, bookstores can become publishers and libraries faux bookstores. Publishers can make more money by licensing all these activities and selling direct to consumers. Ironic, isn't it? Amazon is the one major player that would be taken out of the market by this scenario....

The Ideal Book

2007-11-07T20:15:00.000-06:00

This past weekend, I attended a meeting of the Mid America Association of Law Libraries, where Rivkah Sass was the keynote speaker. Wow! If you ever get a chance to hear her speak about change, don't miss it.

But she got me thinking about an old idea I've had about the perfect blending of old and new technology. You see, many people tend to see the coming "revolution" as some sort of an all or nothing thing: you are digital and like everything to be on computer, or you're a book person, who disdains computers and wants everything in print. That's dumb in my opinion. Who declared war? There's no battle going on, there's simply life, lived in reality.

We need to regularly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various technologies and formats and adopt or collect those that work, and drop those that don't. But sometimes, hybrids make most sense. Consider this: ALR, CJS or things like annotated codes are fine research tools, but their indexes suck. What if instead of an index, there was a volume that was really a solid state computer with it's flash memory stuffed with indexing information? Such a device could be cheaply made and easily updated either wirelessly or with little flash upgrades. It could have a BW touch screen that allowed you to search the text of the treatise or encyclopedia in full text and provide lists of citations. You could even build a little thermal printer in the top that would print lists of cites of a roll of paper like a cash register receipt. End of indexes, without killing the book. Such a device would cost about fifty to one hundred bucks to manufacture and next to nothing to maintain. At today's costs, such a device could added into the cost of maintaining the subscription and hardly be noticed.

The Real "Free" Library?

2007-10-23T19:36:00.000-05:00

Brewster Kahle, creator of the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine is one of the is apparently one of the masterminds behind the UNESCO digital library initiative reported below. Way to go, Brewster! The only question remains: will anyone be content reading books online?

I once read "Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan" on a Palm Pilot (in full color, I should add), just to say I did it. Once was enough for me....

Competition b/t "Free" Digital Online Libraries Heats Up

2007-10-23T19:25:00.000-05:00

This interesting article over at ZDNet points out a little known issue facing the "one world, one library – for free" idealists. Google and Microsoft's initiative for the online libraries, are a pretty good deal for the libraries whose materials they scan: it's free! However, the agreement limits the availability to their own services. OCA's digital initiative, on the other hand, costs libraries about $30 per book to scan, but without limitations.... Hmm, free, or not to free....

Apple, Intel and Google Aiding in the World Digital Library Initiative

2007-10-22T00:10:00.000-05:00

According to AppleInsider.com, Apple is a major supporter of the World Digital Library, reported below. What's more, it apparently has a name after all....

Looks Like Google's Got Competition....

2007-10-21T23:26:00.000-05:00

UNESCO, the Library of Congress, Bibliotheque Nationale, National Library of Brazil, Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Russia and Russian State Library have teamed up to an create online global library. James Billington, Librarian of Congress, has been instrumental in the creation of the digital library that appears to be, as yet unnamed.

Gizmodo: New Sony Reader

2007-09-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Gizmodo reports that pictures of the new Sony E-Book reader have been leaked. Apparently the device is much improved, but asks the critical question: will a new and improved dumb device actually make it better?

It has always seemed to me that the promise of e-books is that the books will be more easily distributed and widely available. But so far, e-book vendors' strategies have gone contrary to this promise: First, e-books are expensive; and, second the devices themselves don't work with all computers (most don't work with Macs, for example). Each device also has insisted on using it's own proprietary software, in an apparent attempt to steer customers to stick with their platform, thus limiting the choices of consumers of e-books.

Now, with Google and Amazon getting into the market, consumers are stuck in a position of having to make arbitrary decisions between several different hardware and software platforms. And given the cost of hardware and software, the decision is essentially a lifelong one.

It's almost analogous to Border's or Barnes and Noble refusing to sell all their books in English, but arbitrarily selling them in various languages and codes.... I'm not sure the e-book is going to be ready for prime time, any time soon....

Google eBooks?

2007-09-10T15:39:00.001-05:00

C|Net News.com reports that Google is about to enter the eBook market. The Google Book Search of a few years ago, apparently taught them a thing or two about business possibilities and now they are exploring ways to spruce up their book offerings and sell them to viewers. There's also a rumor that they are looking to develop a new device on which customers will be able to read the books they buy online. There are two things that I can guarantee: There will be some sort of digital restriction on usage (say you can read the book three times then it locks up, or you have three months to read it before it locks up), and they will probably develop their own proprietary software - because Sony's or Amazon's won't be good enough and, of course, they're just looking out for the consumer..... Oy vey, here we go again.

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Amazon to the Rescue!

2007-09-10T15:05:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder about why eBooks aren't taking off? Well, it's because Amazon hasn't been involved in the marketing of this fabulous, tree-saving, shelf-space-saving tool of the future! And everyone knows that the future is all about digital, right?

And if that exciting announcement in itself isn't enough, get ready for the BIG news: The rumors are that the Amazon eBook will have proprietary software! Nothing that's been done before is good enough for their new machine, so it's great news that users who are already "hooked" on eBooks will have to download new software. (This awesome twist is logical from a company who has been hauling in the sales with their incredible "Unbox" video service.) What genius.

But this article's punch line is the hint that Google is also looking to get into the market.

Incredible. In case you don't pick up on the sarcasm, I'm appalled that Amazon is so thick as to attempt more proprietary software. Their "Unbox" service is so illogical that it will probably win a Darwin award before too long. Think about it: They sell iPods. iPods have sold about 100 million so far. Huge market. So they decide to get into the video market and create a service that doesn't run on iPods. Makes sense to me.

Whatever Amazon calls their eBook, it will not succeed for the simple reason that they are working at odds with their customers. Rule number one of good marketing is to not confuse your customers. But Amazon's smarter than we are, right?