Crowdfunding and Libraries

Via LISNews, Library Journal's Crowdfunding the Library.

What's crowdfunding, you might ask. Well! I have fished up a useful definition from Freebase (or really, Mashable fished it up and I liked it enough to use it, too).

Crowd funding or crowdfunding describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion picture promotion, free software development, inventions development, scientific research, and civic projects.

Kickstarter is a pretty well known crowd funding site. Recently, the cast and creator of a TV show I liked started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a movie. They got it, and they broke a few records along the way. (That was the first time I donated to a Kickstarter project. I just signed up without even watching the promo video. I really loved that show.)

But does it work for libraries? In short: depends! It works best for 'short-term and new' projects, which is good. Also, it takes work; apparently you don't just put up a post and watch money come rolling in. It helps if you have a video or other marketing strategy like the folks in Shutesbury, Maine, who used a site called Indiegogo. It really really helps if that video goes viral.

So what's a small enough project? I'm not sure. Maybe:

• Funding for a library collection - 'donate to improve our kids section' would probably work better than 'donate to improve our non-fiction section'
• Funding for a very small library - really really small
• Funding for equipment - new projector? New furniture? (Maybe a funny video featuring people sitting on old crates would be good - someone on an old chair that's rigged to fall apart, that kind of thing)
• Funding for very very specific things, like 'replace our crummy old sign'

What do you think you could use crowdfunding for?

Downfall and SOPA

I don't know about you, but I wound up in front of Wikipedia's blacked out page at least three times today and each time I felt a little sad.

I don't know if you remember, but I have a distinct love of Downfall parodies. You might not be able to tell from that post, since I didn't have one to link to, but now two of my favourite things have combined - commentary against censorship on the internet and Downfall.



Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Excellent use of the crying woman line, +5 points. Kind of a weird gut punch at the end there.

Continuing the trend of 'funny but sad': the best jokes about students freaking out about the wikipedia blackout.

Milkshake & Fries

Captain James T. Librarian

I really just want to go to bed. Behold:



The creepy smile at 0:15 amuses me. Also, Kirk would've been a terrible librarian.

"You can! Find... that book... in section... six! Hundred!"
Hitting on all the lady library patrons.
Throwing styrofoam rocks around.

MADNESS.

Movie Streaming Run-Around

Oh, blog. I have not forgotten you. Either I have been unintrigued by library news or hammered by schoolwork, but I can change. I promise.

Of interest: a new streaming-movie service allows you to rent remote access to a DVD player, thus sidestepping some copyright stuff.

Zediva has set up hundreds of DVD players. They’re automated, jukebox-style. You’re not just renting a movie; you’re actually taking control of the player that contains the movie you want. The DVD is simply sending you the audio and video signals, as if it were connected to your home with a really, really long cable.

It’s kind of hilarious to think that this arrangement is the solution to the future of online movies: data centers stacked to the ceiling with DVD players... Zediva is just buying dozens of copies of each popular movie on the day it comes out, and presto, it’s yours to rent by long distance.

The Beauty of Data Visualization

Another post taken from my Database Searching class, here is David Candless on the beauty of data visualization:

Shh! Sound Health in 8 Steps

Look, a tangent! Sort of. Anything with the word 'shh' in the title attracts my proto-librarian interest.



Another talk by Julian Treasure: The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.

As much as libraries are moving toward being active, non-silent areas, we should still appreciate silence - it allows us to be more productive. Sometimes - like yesterday - I'll find myself weirdly sensitive to sound and it quite honestly makes me feel awful. Chatty classroom environments are terrible for it. Sadly, moving away from the sound isn't so much an option in a classroom, unless I want to duck in and out of the door as the instructor speaks. It only happens every so often, but I do feel physically ill when it does. I wonder how common that is.

Neil Gaiman Interview Involving Copyright

Neil Gaiman on how his views on copyright and piracy changed.

"That's really all this is; it's people lending books."



I discovered Gaiman through a book a friend lent to me at a particularly cruddy time in my life; Good Omens, which he co-authored with a favourite author of mine at the time, Terry Pratchett. And after I read that, I decided I wanted to read more by him, and proceeded to be a big fan of Neil's for years and years after that, even breaking my 'no hardcovers' rule for him. I have borrowed Neil Gaiman's books, I have lent Neil Gaiman's books, but I have never pirated Neil Gaiman's books.

Bad Reviews and Typewriter ASCII Art

The sad world of bad book reviews and responding to bad book reviews. (Perhaps that last one is a cautionary tale against Twitter?)

And then, just because I couldn't quite bring myself to use an entire post for this:

Alan Moore On Libraries

Alan Moore, one of the scariest guys in the comic book industry (unless you're afraid of pouches, tiny feet, and big veins in illustrated format, in which case Rob Liefeld's the scariest guy), speaks out on why libraries are important.



You may recall Alan Moore as the author of The Black Dossier, mentioned way back in the day in the whole League of Extraordinary Porn* kerfuffle.

In any case, agree that libruries are important or I swear he'll stab someone.

* I was being cheeky.

90-Second Newbery Award Winners

There is a contest for filming 90-Second versions of Newbery Award Winners. If it's at all as wonderful as this version of A Wrinkle In Time, I'm all for it.

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

"I'm Calvin O'Keefe! I'm popular... but sensitive. Only I understand just how special you are, Meg!"

Oh, Calvin O'Keefe.

Lone Wolf Fruit Shop Talk

Stolen from The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian:



Oh, British humour. How I love you.

Protective Literature

If you can't spend under three minutes watching, you were best off with 'Witz', though one commenter pointed out the books 'would be constricted under a coat' while the books in the video just flew open. Another stated they should have tried Mark Twain's autobiography, too. Me, I was sold with the jaunty declaration, "Let's shoot some books!"

Maybe that's not the best thing for a wannabe librarian to be amused by, but really, it's for protection, folks.

Fake Film: The Library

I'd watch it!

The Library from openiris on Vimeo.

Via librarian.net.

LISNews: Ten Stories That Shaped 2010

Back in 2009, LISNews posted their list of the ten stories that shaped that year and this blog covered at least half of them! When it was only three months old!

LISNews has posted their list for 2010, which includes:

1. YouTube Sensations
   
2. Libraries and DVDs and Netflix, Oh My
   
3. Piracy Crackdown
   
4. Under New Management
   
5. Gizmo of the Year: iPad
   
6. I For One Welcome Our New Media Overlords
   
7. Web 2.0 Fatigue
   
8. Sign of the Times: Libraries = Offices for Unemployed
   
9. Google eBookstore Opens
   
10. Wikileaks Freakout
    

While I did not bother posting about the Old Spice Guy bit, I did have a mock version. I also had Gordon Pinsent reads Bieber, which wasn't a sensation but should have been. I will count that as one.

I didn't bother with the story about DVDs and Netflix, mostly because we didn't even have Netflix in Canada until recently. Nothing about the specific piracy concerns mentioned in LISNews, but a bit aboutWarner getting sued for Antipiracy Piracy as well as Confessions of a Book Pirate. Something about calling for new privacy laws as well. Maybe point five?

Outsourcing libraries! That's a solid one!

I made fun of iPads but failed to report on how libraries were using them. Point five. New media, case covered, one point. Web fatigue? The last time I mentioned it was in 2009 in a disparaging manner. I still think there's too much arm-flappy wailing, so no point there.

While I mentioned libraries being important for the unemployed and their job searches in at least one college essay, I failed to mention it here as far as I know - that's another zero. I talk about Google so often I have a 'google again' tag. Believe it or not, I actively try not to constantly blog about Google, so I did not mention this topic. Zero! One mention of WikiLeaks, but nothing on the freakout. No point there.

The total is... 4. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Grover In the Library

I stole this from a student presentation in one of my classes:

Sir Patrick Stewart Geeks Out About the Internet

The Power of the Single Story

A TED talk from Chimamanda Adichie about how limiting a single story of a place or person can be and the importance of noting similarities between people instead of just presenting the negative differences. There's a super awesome part about reading 'American Psycho'.

The History of Books and New Library Technologies Dispensing With Librarians

The history of the book! A very short history ("nice hat"). I wish it was longer; it was dynamic and entertaining. Found this in Conor Dougherty's Wall Street Journal article, New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians, which is also interesting and talks about good ol' book vending machine stuff.

Gordon Pinsent Reads Bieber

"Ahh, the girls... the grilled cheese... I wish I was you."