library

I work at a public library with 28 Linux stations made publicly available in four separate rooms. The room in which I spend most of my time has 10 computers, and elementary and middle school students stop by daily after school to use them. About 90 percent of the children use the computers for games, and about 10 percent use them for doing homework. Very few use the computer for creative graphics applications. I'm bent on changing that. » Read more

My husband and I are librarians. We were talking recently about library training, the library profession, the open source movement, and how open source digital content is being distributed today in public libraries. We were struck by the way that open source thinking has infiltrated many areas—but not yet the profession or institution of librarians. » Read more

When I was approached nearly five years ago now and asked to put together an edited work on how libraries can use mashups to improve services, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that the topic wasn't going to be open source software instead. Before the ink had even dried on my mashups book though I was offered the opportunity I wanted, a book on open source software for libraries. Now when I'm asked to speak at conferences and events the topic of interest is either open source or mashups, but never both. While there are of course differences in these two types of technologies, there are also similarities. » Read more