How students use Google Books

How do you do a lit review?

What if libraries stopped selecting?

Browsing magazines in Google Books
Google Books has responded to pressure to provide a way to browse all the available magazine titles. Software Engineer Jeffrey Peng coded a page that lists all the magazine titles, with a Cover View or List View option. You can also get a full list by going to Advanced Search, clicking the Magazines radio button (don’t put anything in any search box, and leave All Book

Sorry, no copies available to request
I just tried requesting the The Stanford-Lockheed Meyer Library Flood Report through my local public library (ironically, the report is not available at any of the Stanford Libraries). All I got was a message that said: “Sorry, no copies available to request.” I poked around (‘cuz that’s what librarians do) and figured out that they have a cooperative agreement with only one of the four owning libraries, and the copy of the report in that library is checked out and not due until February 10, 2010. I don’t get any options to put a hold on it, only a message that says “Sorry, no copies available for request”. To most people I know,

In defense of Google Books: A round-up
Some recent writings and key quotes in defense of the Google Books settlement: Forbes–In Defense of Google Books: By scanning the books, Google took us to a real-world discussion of how to get these volumes into the digital world in some way that we can live with. It is questionable whether we would have gotten there without such a bold move. Slate–Save the Google Book Search Deal: The critics’ premise is that the monopoly that the settlement c

Deadheads, Tupac, and libraries
Two recent announcement for music and library lovers: UC Santa Cruz has received a grant to digitize their Grateful Dead Archive. UCSC Librarian Virginia Steel notes that “the grant gives us the opportunity to create a new model for web-based archives that will include traditional materials from our Grateful Dead A

Carol Shloss and Fair Use Project FTW
From the Stanford Report: The Stanford scholar who wrote a controversial biography of James Joyce’s daughter has settled her claims for attorneys’ fees against the Joyce Estate for $240,000. The settlement successfully ends a tangled saga that has continued for two decades. In this video, Shloss describes the settlement as both a “vindication of my scholarship”, and a “winning combination” of patient, traditional scholarship; creative lawyering; and cutting edge technology: