Phil Bradley's weblog

HarperCollins hit by several types of stupid stick

You will by now be aware, I'm sure, that HarperCollins have decided to try and play and price libraries out of the eBook game. They have decided that libraries will only be able to loan one of their eBooks 26 times before it implodes on itself like a Mission Impossible cassette tape. They also reserve the right to check library records to ensure that books are only being lent to appropriate members of the library. (Which I imagine is against a fair number of privacy laws.)

I simply cannot begin to describe what a stupid, backward looking and retrograde step I think this is. It is a direct attack on a library's users, making it difficult for them to borrow electronic books that they might otherwise be unable to read. Worse than that, it is going to make libraries think twice about purchasing eBooks in the future if publishers think that they can just change the rules whenever they feel like it.

This is a stupid decision because this will not stop eBook adoption - libraries are not leading in this area, they're following. eBooks are simply the result of a move to electronic material - music has gone that way, films are going, and this is going to be the last holdout. Moreover, if users can't see their titles it's going to make them borrow less, not more, and buy less, not more. It's already not difficult to pirate books, and making it harder to lend them isn't going to make this process happen any less.

What libraries and librarians can do about this is of course another matter. In my opinion, any eBook that isn't DRM free shouldn't be purchased. Now, the problem with that approach is that we're cutting off our noses to spite our users faces. They want access to this type of material, and we should be able to give it to them. Particularly at the time that we're trying to justify our existence, and reach out to larger groups than we've ever been able to do before. I don't see a sensible alternative - if we bend over backwards publishers will not thank us, they'll just take more and more. I think this is simply another battle that we'll have to fight really.

If you want to follow this on Twitter, the hashtag is #hcod and my favourite Militant Librarian post about this fiasco is from Sarah, the Librarian in Black, entitled Library eBook Revolution, Begin. It's a must read piece.

Edited to add: I'd like to make it perfectly clear that this is my PERSONAL view and opinion, and not that of CILIP. The Guardian used a quote without reference back to me or checking at all. Anything that I write in my blog is always my personal view, which is why it's on my blog and not on the CILIP website.

Related articles

• This Library E-Book Will Self-Destruct (m.readwriteweb.com)
• eBooks In the Public Library Under Fire! (geardiary.com)
• HarperCollins Library eBook Policies Generate Protests - GalleyCat (mediabistro.com)
• HarperCollins puts limits on library eBook lending (feldmanfile.blogspot.com)
• This eBook will self destruct in 5 seconds. (metafilter.com)
• HarperCollins Seeks to Limit Digital Lending, Access Patron Data, Generally Piss Off Readers (smartbitchestrashybooks.com)

Pikimal

A better way to Choose, Rank, Review, Compare, and Filter electronics, baby products, food and health, cars. Interesting resource this. They have lots of categories (charities, careers, gadgets, gaming, software) and subjects within them. You can then go in and consider the subject of choice and compare it to others. This can then help you make a choice on what you buy, or potentially even what career you go into. I did a quick comparison of a Kindle and another ebook reader and was impressed. I also looked at the 'Librarian' career and was amused that under 'Emotional requirements' Stress was ticked, so they were right on the button with that.

Obviously with resources like this there are limitations. If the thing you're interested in isn't available, there isn't much you can do except request it. The other major problem is that this is US biased, which I understand, but it does limit it somewhat. Otherwise, it's a fun tool.

Travel Journal

The http://www.traveljournal.com is an interesting site, if you're into traveling around. From the site itself: You'll find elegant and intuitive tools, up to the moment geo-related information, plenty of useful resources and the professional and experienced community you've been looking for – all in a state of the art and fun environment created specifically for travelers.

We believe TravelJournal will become a perfect travel companion for any modern adventurer, be it first-time travelers, seasoned explorers or experienced traveling writers, wherever they are.

We want TravelJournal to become your new travel writing home and invite you to join us and share your adventures with your family, your friends and the rest of the world.

It has featured journals, the ability to search and see posts where people have put up information about their visit to a city, their photographs and so on. It's still fairly early in its life, but looks like it could be a lot of fun if you're into travel and sharing it with your friends.

Lendle

Kindle Book Sharing. The latest in an increasingly busy marketplace for lending and borrowing Kindle books.Works the same way that the others do.

KidRex

After a safe search engine for children? Try KidRex if you like. It's based on a Google custom search engine running in safe mode, with additional website data. I'm not sure of exactly what age range it's good for, but I'm guessing that it's not focussed on a specific age range, it just keeps out the 'naughty' stuff. Unfortunately, it keeps it out too well. So, no searching for blue tits I'm afraid. Or 'breasts' although you can do searches for chicken breast recipes and breast cancer.

I did manage to catch it out on a couple of terms, and I've emailed them about those - so it's not perfect, but nothing like this ever will be. It also just returns webpages rather than image, video or news search for example.

Nice cheerful interface:

I first mentioned this one back in March 2009, but it's recently got a revival of interest via Twitter, so thought I'd mention it again.

[Edited to add: I got a response to my email detailing the inappropriate material about 4 hours after sending it with a confirmation that one racist website has been removed and they're working on a filter for another ambigious term. Full points for that.]

Coates Watch

It is rather ironic that in order to suggest that people ignore something it's necessary to bring it to their attention. One has to weigh up the merits of that increased publicity as against the disgust shown, and hope that people are sensible enough to make up their own minds. This is the case with a site called CoatesWatch and an associated Twitter account @CoatesWatch. You'll note that I'm not linking directly to either - while it's necessary to point the site and account out, there's no need to give either even more publicity by a direct link.

The purpose of these accounts is to make direct attacks on a library campaigner, Tim Coates. It's no secret that I don't particularly like him, and I'm pretty sure that he doesn't like me either. I don't like his opinions or his attitude towards librarians. However, he has EVERY right to hold them, and although I think his attempts to save libraries are not focussed in the way that I would like them to be, that's beside the point. Tim would probably use exactly the same words about me.

If we're to debate and discuss issues, then let us do so. Ad hominem attacks do no good, and in fact draw attention away from challenging his methods and approach. The approach used by CoatesWatch merely sows seeds of distrust - as the account is anonymous (no, I don't know who runs it and no, it's not me) it does have the danger that fellow professionals will look at each other and wonder. It also means that if anyone addresses the issues that Tim raises it does identify those individuals as, I suppose, potential writers of the account.

I truly hope that the originator of the accounts is not a professional librarian and I most certainly hope that they are not a member of any professional body. If it is ever discovered who is behind the accounts I can assure them that I would contact their professional body that same day with a request that they should be removed from it for professional misconduct. If we are unable to counter arguments without resorting to anonymous accounts we shouldn't be attempting to at all.

The Twitter account is currently followed by 62 people, many of them people that I either know personally, or who I respect professionally. I suspect that each and everyone of them does so not out of support for the account but to keep an eye on it. I would however respectfully suggest that while this account has followers and a readership it will continue to be written, so followers may wish to reconsider their position regarding it. I do not follow the account myself and I have now blocked it. We do not need distractions of this nature when we have more important battles to fight.

Yometa; visual search engine

This is quite interesting if you like visual results. Yometa takes the results from Google, Yahoo and Bing and displays them in a Venn diagram, thus:

To search a term, simply type in a search term in the top left entry box and click the search button.

The top 22 results will be displayed as pins on the three intersecting circles. The top 4 results (as determined by the Yometa algorithm) among these 22 pins will display in the form of bubbles with website information, linked to the pin location.

To search among the remaining Yometa first page results, simply hover your mouse over the squares on the far left side of the screen. Website bubbles will display over every 4 results in a sequential manner.

To display the next set of results, i.e, results 23-44, press the “next” link at the bottom of the set of blue squares.

To display any combination of results from the three search engines, simply click on the appropriate section of smaller set of intersecting circles on the left side of the screen.

For example, if you want to see only the results shared by all the three engines Google(red), Yahoo(green), and Bing(blue), you would click on the center portion of the small intersecting circle.

To go back to the original results, simply click on the shaded portion again.

 

Forelook multi search engine

This is quite interesting, because Forelook is a search engine that's been broken down to the absolute bare minimum. Take a look:

Virtually nothing there! Very basic, which isn't always a bad thing. Results loaded quite quickly, except for the times when they didn't, at which point they just didn't seem to come up at all. However, if you want sparse and reasonably quick and a fair spread of engines, give this one a look over.

12vid.com

12vid.com. 12 top videos every day. It's a nice simple way to keep up to speed with some of the viral videos that are coming out of YouTube. There's also a search facility as well. This may well become one of those places that you just stop by every now and then to catch up.

Google's been busy

Google has been getting up to a lot of stuff recently and adding in a whole bunch of new things. I'm always prepared to point out where I think they don't get things right, but equally happy to point out where they do. So, in reverse chronological order:

You can now find Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs). These "are files that describe how to draw the basic elements needed to create an image: elements like lines, circles, polygons and more complex shapes. Unlike the images typically returned by most search engines (for example, JPG, GIF and PNG), SVGs can be stretched to any size without the quality of the image suffering. This makes them ideally suited for things like clip art, maps, logos, flags and scientific diagrams." Simply choose Image search, click on the Advanced search option and then pick SVG from the file type options. Alternatively, run any search in images and add filetype:svg You'll end up with results that look something like this:

Getting married anytime soon? If so, you'll want to check out what Google has been producing for you. In their new Weddings section you'll see that they have provided templates for websites, photo editing and announcement tools, Google doc templates and Picasa wedding album options.

Stronger sign in verification. If you use your Google account on a lot of different machines there is always the danger that you'll forget to log out correctly, leaving the account open to anyone and everyone to cause havoc. Google has now rolled out a 2 stage verification system that people can opt into. The idea is that you'll be on a public machine, want to get into your account and Google will send a verification code to your mobile phone. You then input that along with your password and voila. You can set the code to last for a period of time, or always on specific machines if you wish. There's more detailed instructions in the Google help centre.

 

So - fun, new and good extra functionality. Bravo!