Due a multitude of competing interests that keep us from posting here on a more regular basis, Josh and I have decided to end the run of Library Laws and instead concentrate our efforts on our own respective blogs. Thank you for reading, and we hope you'll join us at our individual homes:

Joshua Brauer - Adding Understanding

Tom Boone - tom boone dot com

Catching up after a long Thanksgiving holiday...

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is adding yet another logical component to its online arsenal:

Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives -- such as word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images, say people familiar with the matter. The service could let users access their files via the Internet from different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password, and share them online with friends. It could be released as early as a few months from now, one of the people said.

The Mountain View, Calif., company plans to provide some free storage, with additional storage allotments available for a fee, say the people familiar with the matter. Planned pricing isn't known.

I currently use Google's web page creation service, Google Pages, for temporarily storing documents I collect on the web while performing research, thus allowing me to work from different computers on the same task. The new file storage service will streamline that process significantly.

Google is hardly the only option for online storage. The WSJ article includes a graph listing other options, including web products from Microsoft and AOL.

[WSJ.com] Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data

The Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas invites applications for a tenure-track position of Electronic Services Reference Librarian (ESRL). The Library seeks a personable, energetic, and motivated individual who will provide electronic information processes and services to faculty, students and other patrons.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The Electronic Services Reference Librarian will administer policies and programs for electronic resources and electronic instruction, and coordinates with other departments in developing such policies and programs for the library as a whole. The ESRL is primarily responsible for day-to-day management and coordination of access and electronic information services. The ESRL provides service-oriented reference and research assistance to patrons of the law library including faculty, students and public patrons (some evening hours required); participates in the library's faculty liaison program (research assistance to law faculty); provides instruction as part of the Advanced Legal Research course and in a variety of other capacities; serves on law library, law school and university committees; and performs other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS
Required:
Candidates must possess an ABA accredited J.D. and an ALA accredited M.L.S. or equivalent, or having completed one of the degrees, is in the process of completing the other degree by the time of appointment or shortly thereafter. Demonstrated experience with legal research materials, techniques and strategies, especially electronic resources. Strong service orientation and an ability to work well with others; and excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills. Knowledge of web-based subscription services, web-based instructional technology tools, and Internet resources

Preferred:
Knowledge of HTML and web-authoring tools; demonstrated experience with creating and maintaining web pages. Experience with database design. Familiarity with library computer applications and desktop Windows software and internet based-communication tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasting. Knowledge of Digitization Projects, E-Reserves, Database Projects, and Licensing Agreements.

SALARY AND BENEFITS
This is a full-time tenure-track, twelve-month academic faculty position at Rank II (equivalent to an Assistant Professor). Salary competitive and contingent on labor market. This position is contingent upon funding. Excellent medical and retirement benefits; 24 days sick leave, 24 days vacation, 11 holidays; no state income tax.

National Geographic recently voted Las Vegas #1 Best Place to Live and Play due to financial opportunity and "more outdoor action within a 200-mile radius than any other major town in the nation." With 320 days of sunshine and winter temperatures averaging approximately 65 degrees it is easy to enjoy six national parks, two national recreation areas, 13 state parks and millions of acres of national forest within a 200 mile perimeter. Less than an hour from Las Vegas you can enjoy mountain biking, skiing, hiking, fishing, rafting, rock climbing and relaxing at geographically diverse sites such as Mt. Charleston at nearly 12,000 feet, the stunning red sandstone formations of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and the dramatic Mohave Desert.

If you are interested in applying for this position please go to http://hrsearch.unlv.edu to submit a letter of interest, a detailed resume listing qualifications and experience, and the names, addresses and telephone numbers of three professional references who may be contacted. Applicants should fully describe their qualifications and experience, with specific reference to each of the minimum qualifications. Initial review of materials will be based on this information. The review of materials will begin immediately. For assistance with UNLV's online applicant portal, contact Jen Martens at (702) 895-3886 or hrsearch@unlv.edu

Job Posting

Amazon introduced it's new eBook reading device, Kindle, this morning. The product's website contains several video overviews of the device, along with testimonials from several authors, including Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman, James Patterson and Michael Lewis (author of one of my favorite books, Moneyball).

The site and videos addressed some of the misgivings I have about eBooks in general. First, there is a full text search feature, something required to use Kindle for anything resembling research. Second, there's also the ability to annotate as you read, the electronic equivalent of underlining and writing in the margins. Without either of these features, the device could be little more than a reading-for-fun device. However, I wonder if Kindle provides a means for organizing these annotations (and by extension the book text itself) through tagging or some other means of categorization. That's the kind of feature that would actually give an eReader like Kindle an advantage over print books. Since the demo video brags about the ability to export annotations from the Kindle, I'm not optimistic this feature exists.

An additional misgiving I've always had about eBooks is storage. Sure, a device like Kindle holds hundreds of books, but what about those of us whose home libraries run in the thousands? Kindle has an SD card slot so there is the possibility of external storage of overflow, but I don't want to maintain a library of SD cards anymore than I wanted to maintain a library of floppies in the 1990s. That said, a collection of SD cards certainly takes up a lot less room than a library of print books (though I suspect a room lined with shelves of SD cards will be slightly less decorative than my current library at home).

Fortunately, Amazon will handle online storage in the same manner they do with Unbox video downloads via the Media Library. Every eBook you buy for Kindle will be stored in your online Amazon library so that you can re-download it later. No word, however, on whether or not these eBooks will have restrictions similar to those on Unbox, in which there are often limits on how often you can download an item.

Pricing for titles on Kindle is a big step up from previous eBook efforts. The single biggest reason that I have never purchased an eBook of any kind is the the cost. With few exceptions, the price for eBooks on Amazon in the past were the same as buying the item in print. Isn't one of the biggest selling points of eBooks supposed to be the lower cost of production? If the cost is the same despite no physical product, I feel like I'm getting ripped off, regardless of convenience. Albums on iTunes cost less than CDs, and now eBooks on Amazon cost less than print books, which is exactly how things should be. (In addition, with Kindle's ability to manipulate font size, any book can now become a large text edition with one setting change.) Kudos to Amazon for making this happen. Finally.

But what about rentals and/or library loans? Is there any chance that Kindle owners will be able to obtain books for a limited amount of time? Unbox offers consumers a choice between rentals (less expensive and limited in time) and purchases (more expensive and permanent), so it would be logical to do the same with eBooks. For now, however, users can only purchase eBooks. Will there be any means by which a lending library can purchase titles for Kindle and then loan them out to patrons who have a device of their own? Doubtful. Libraries' only option will likely be to amass a collection of digital files and then loan out Kindle devices to patrons with selected content preloaded, similar to what's being done at some libraries with iPods. This hardly seems the most efficient use for Kindle, and I wonder if the terms of service even allow this.

Formats appear to be limited. Presumably I can't buy an eBook from another provider and expect it to work in Kindle. Word documents can be imported, but PDFs apparently can't. Would the iPod have succeeded if it didn't play MP3s?

A major reason Kindle actually looks viable is Amazon's huge library of available titles. When I browsed available titles this morning, the site pulled up 91,325 results. Not too shabby for the first day. However, when I searched for the 4 books that I'm currently reading (The Power Broker by Robert Caro, Fame Junkies by Jake Halpern, Ladies and Gentleman, the Bronx Is Burning by Jonathan Mahler, and Manhunt by James Swanson), only one (Manhunt) is available on Kindle right now.

So maybe I've complained a lot, but I'm still very, very intrigued. This is the first eReader that I've ever given any real thought to actually buying. It is a slick little device. A bit on the ugly side, but still innovative, particularly for providing book shopping and downloading directly on the device. Even if Amazon opted for a notoriously unreliable wireless carrier like Sprint, at least they have a wireless carrier.

Your move, Sony.

A recently announced website and currently limited beta Twine looks to be an interesting new tool for collecting information and processing it. From the company's website:

in a nutshell Twine uses the Semantic Web, natural language processing, and machine learning to make your information and relationships smarter. But if that’s all Greek to you, just think of Twine as your very own intelligent personal Web assistant, working for you behind the scenes so you can be more productive.

I will be excited to see what it can do.

Web 2.0 startup docstoc began the public beta of its online document sharing service yesterday. The site is designed for users to share professional documents, including legal forms and court pleadings, with one another, with one another. Sort of like YouTube for documents. In addition, the site offers users personal folders for creating their own document repositories.

If this service really takes off with users, it could be a boon for law libraries serving pro se patrons. The docstoc repository offers at least the promise of an online collection of legal forms that goes beyond whatever local court websites deem worthy of posting online. In fact, librarians might want to use the service to collect and post such forms themselves as a way of expanding their institutions' online presence.

The world of web-based communication just keeps getting better. On Monday night Meebo launched Meebo Platform, a service allowing third party application development for the browser-based IM site. According to TechCrunch:

Like Facebook Platform and the recently announced MySpace Platform it consists of a set of APIs to give developers access certain user features and information. Developers will be able to include Flash applets and Javascript snippets within the applications.

Unlike MySpace and Facebook, however, the platform is not open to all who choose to come. The company is announcing four partners this evening and opening up a sandbox area for developers to build potential applications. Those that Meebo thinks will make the user experience richer, will be permitted to launch.

The four initial partners are Pudding Media (voice chat), Tokbox (video/audio calls), Ustream (live broadcasting) and Talkshoe (group voice calls).

Assuming these and future applications become part of Meebo's widget service, MeeboMe, this could benefit libraries offering virtual reference service by enabling voice and video chat with patrons directly from the library website.

Thus far, the only thing stopping me from switching all of my email accounts to Gmail accounts was the lack of IMAP access. I have 3 different computers from which I regularly access all of my mail accounts. When I read or delete or file an email on one machine, I need the change to show up on the other machines, too. IMAP is essential for this to work smoothly.

IMAP is also essential for the smooth running of an email-based reference service in which several librarians all access questions from the same mail account.

My two main non-work email accounts are with Netzero and Gmail. Neither of these accounts offer IMAP, so I forward all mail in these accounts to corresponding addresses on an IMAP server I run myself. This accomplishes what I need but adds an extra layer that increases the risk of complication -- particularly because I run the server myself.

Starting tonight, Gmail appears to be offering users IMAP access to their mail. According to Download Squad, IMAP instructions are beginning to appear in both the settings and help sections of the Gmail site.

Armed with this information, I logged into one of my Gmail accounts (the one listed over in the sidebar of this site), but IMAP wasn't available. I then logged into a different Gmail account and was ecstatic to find IMAP available in my settings. Not only does this eliminate an extra layer of potential error to my mail, but ensures that someone better qualified than me is running the server.

This does not, however, solve all my email problems. At work, we recently switched to Exchange Server, and no one has turned on the IMAP switch yet. As a result, I can only access my email using Outlook or Entourage, two applications I truly loathe. Now, Outlook does allow me to set up a rule to redirect all my email to an external IMAP account, but for some unknown reason this process strips out all the addresses in the "To" field of each message, replacing them with the address to which the mail is being redirected. So now I never know whether a message was sent just to me, to several other people and me, or solely to someone else with me as a "BCC." More importantly, this renders the "Reply All" button in my mail client absolutely useless. Another odd quirk? Outlook redirects HTML emails as plain text, meaning any formatting in the original message is lost. The only workaround I can come up with is for someone in IT to go into Active Directory and forward my mail to an external address from there. This would eliminate my reliance on Outlook's fatally flawed redirect rule. Sadly, however, my department's IT staff hasn't been granted Active Directory access by the larger institution, so no one can actually set this up for me.

With Gmail now offering IMAP, I now know exactly where I want my work email forwarded -- assuming I can find someone to forward it.

[Download Squad] Gmail gets IMAP

IM remains the hot topic here at Library Laws. In recent weeks we've talked about Meebo, Plugoo, Pidgin, Adium and iChat AV. Well, there's a new player entering the field of IM clients: Mozilla. The folks responsible for the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird mail client have introduced Instantbird, an open-source, cross-platform, multi-protocol instant messaging client. Built on libpurple (the basis for both Pidgin and Adium), Instantbird is only on its first beta release (version 0.1) but already provides support for the AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, QQ, XMPP (aka Jabber) and Yahoo! networks. In addition, like other Mozilla applications, we can eventually expect a lot of user-created add-ons that will substantially increase the software's functionality.

This certainly makes my life more interesting, as I'm currently developing IM training and best practices for our reference librarians in using a multi-protocol client to monitor a virtual reference service. Originally, the plan was to recommend Pidgin for everyone, but in recent weeks a lot has happened to make this decision less certain. In addition to testing Instantbird on my own computers, I'm also analyzing the impact of Meebo's new Firefox sidebar add-on and the approaching release of Trillian Astra (including a Mac version). What should we be using? Trillian? Pidgin? Meebo? Hard to say, but at least the list of viable options is growing.