New iTunes Music Listening Stations

After years of visiting book and music stores like Borders, Virgin Records, and FYE and having an opportunity to listen to any CD’s tracks before making a purchasing decision has been a luxury that I certainly have taken for granted. Libraries usually do not have this luxury, but why? Right outside my office is a monolithic filing cabinet where all of our CDs are hidden. That’s right, they are hidden! I have heard first hand the cries of many library users who have become so frustrated when trying to find a CD. It is true that these CDs are difficult to find because they have stickers and other “library stuff” stuck all over them. And it doesn’t help that they are tightly squeezed into this filing cabinet.

So, I asked myself wouldn’t it be nice if we could open up our CD collection for people to browse and listen to these CDs before they decided to check them out or not? There are several libraries doing just that, so I decided to take it seriously and set up a system. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on 2 old PCs and set them up to become our music listening stations by using iTunes. Although 2,000 songs have been digitized, not all of our collection is digitized yet. That will come very soon. So, please visit the West St. Petersburg Community Library at St. Petersburg College and try it out!

Also, I have been working on creating a web page based on the XML data that iTunes creates. This web page is still a work in progress, but you can check it out at: http://www.spcollege.edu/SPG/WSPCL/iTunes%20Music%20Library.xml. Firefox doesn’t like it yet, but I am working on it. The links should open up the iTunes application so that you can listen to a 30 second clip. I will have the call number links going to our library catalog very soon.

If you are interested in the process, I am working on a document that explains the process of setting up this system. Just send me an email or comment on this blog post and I’ll forward you a copy.

Stay tuned!

ARTStor QTVR Panoramas of World Architecture Collection

ARTstor and Columbia University are collaborating to encourage the use of Quick Time Virtual Reality (QTVR) in teaching and scholarship. ARTstor has just added approximately 300 QTVRs to the Digital Library, bringing the total number available to over 1,200. This addition focuses on the architecture and cityscapes of Venice, Italy.

To find the panoramas, visit Library Online login to our databases and then open ARTstor. Search for “qtvr,” or browse to find them from the “Welcome Page” by clicking on “ARTstor Collections” then choosing “QTVR Panoramas of World Architecture” from the resulting list." Make sure you click on the QTVR links.

For more information about this collection, see the QTVR Panoramas of World Architecture (Columbia University) collection page.

If you have any other questions, please ask a librarian.

Introducing the OLPC XO laptop!

There has been a lot of buzz lately regarding electronic reading devices. Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle have been a big part of this buzz. Now, check out the second generation of the OLPC XO laptop, which will be called the XO-2. Personally, I love the foldable design, the touch screen and the fact that the battery life will be better than other devices. Nothing can beat the battery life of my physical books -- yet. Stayed tuned.

Oxford Art and Music Online databases have been redesigned.

The Oxford Art and Music Online databases have been redesigned. Guided tours can be found at:

Oxford Music Online
Oxford Art Online

Twine

Imagine having a personal assistant to help you organize, share and discover information from “networks of like-minded people” (Twine). Twine is the web application to help you do this! Twine will sort through an amalgamation of information that you have foraged for and accumulated over the years and try to make sense of it all. Nova Spivack released the beta version of Twine recently and said that he is “trying to amplify human intelligence with machine intelligence” (Thompson). Twine is working to help make sense of the machine-readable Semantic Web.

Want to be part of the Twine revolution? Register for the Invite Beta at: http://www.twine.com/