This week’s 4cast:
1. Search Inside a Book (Once You’ve Figured Out Who Published It)
In an effort to defend their turf from the likes of Google Book Search and Amazon’s Search Inside!, mega-publishers Random House and HarperCollins have both unveiled book-browsing tools for their own catalogs. Some scoffing is heard.
- Publishers try to stave off Google, Amazon with book search (Ars Technica)
- Publishers OK online book browsing (CNN)
- Publishing Houses Think That Expensive, Fragmented And Limited Book Search Is Better Than Letting Google And Amazon Do It? (Techdirt)
- ‘Mine! Mine!’: The risk of proprietary approach to book searching (TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home)
2. Knocking the Entertainment Industry Down a Notch
Lawmakers recently introduced the Fair Use Act of 2007 (PDF), which would allow consumers to circumvent DRM technologies under certain circumstances (for example, librarians would be allowed to do so in order to update or preserve materials). However, some critics warn that the bill doesn’t go far enough to balance the perceived injustices of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
- Lawmakers Tout DMCA Killer (Wired News)
- Library Copyright Alliance Strongly Supports H.R. 1201, the FAIR USE Act (Current copyright readings)
- FAIR USE Act analysis: DMCA reform left on the cutting room floor (Ars Technica)
- FAIR Use Act: copyright reform bill introduced in House (Boing Boing)
3. Ning’s the Thing
Ning is an online tool that allows users to easily create their own social networks. Some librarians are getting pretty into it.
- Ning relaunches instant web community tool (Lifehacker)
- More on Ning and the Library 2.0 Network (Baby Boomer Librarian)
- Social Librarians (The Shifted Librarian)
- My Thoughts On Online Communities (Life as I Know It)
4. Search Continues…
Search engines – of both the local and metasearch variety – just keep on getting better and better, leading some to lament the diminishing role that libraries are playing in helping people find information.
- Google Answers Researchers Launch Uclue (LISNews)
- (Meta)search Like Google (Library Journal)
- Ask Adds Search Targeting Tools (O’Reilly Radar)
- Librarian’s Ultimate Guide to Search Engines (DegreeTutor)
