The Huntington Library has a Zen garden. Why not us? Take a look and let me know what you think. And a tea room.

We already have the ginkos.

Renovation is in the air. I'm going to use my blog to gather sources of info and examples of library renovations that appeal to me. Here's one from a COPLAC school: U of Minnesota at Mankato. What caught my eye was the following description:

"Bring in comfortable, soft seating to encourage students to gather & share. Also, work around the impossible constraints of adding 86 computers around immovable pillars that support the building."

Wow, another library with immovable pillars! Here's one way they dealt with the pillar issues.

Hey, I"m really excited about this blog I found. It's current, hip, and keeps me up on the latest Digital reading news. Try it out. It's called the Digital Reader.

I'm still keeping an eye on the eBook reader market in the academic world. Looks like Amazon's Kindle DX pilot project with universities hit a stumbling block. According to Andrew Nusca, blogger for The Toy Box on ZDNet, three universities testing the Kindle DX have agreed to stop participating in the pilot project until the Kindle DX is functional for the blind. You can read the whole story on Nusca's blog.

EBooks

The eBook explosion is here. The Kindle, Nook and Apple apps are ready to deliver the text. What to buy? What's best bundle, publisher and price point ? Look for some changes! Jennifer Howard from the Chronicle summarizes the marketplace in Publishers Join Forces to Sell E-books to Libraries

Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface

For a balanced look at the strengths and weaknesses of Wikipedia, check out this video made by North Carolina State University Libraries.

Google Fusion Tables

Amy Cavendar writes for the ProfHacker section of the Chronicle. In her 1/10/2011 post, All Things Google: Using Google Fusion Tables to Visualize Data she introduces a new Google product just released from the Google Labs. Google Fusion Tables allows the user to gather, visualize and share data online. I'm going to take a look at it. Census data can be loaded into a table and plotted with Google Maps. I see applications for the Social Work students.