Thanks to Anna for pointing out this article in the Bookseller. It reports that in the USA it is now possible to download a free Kindle App for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, so that Kindle users can choose to read or transfer their digital books to the device, and even buy Kindle formatted books directly from Amazon. However, it is not available to UK iPhone users at present, so I have no excuse to get myself an iPhone just yet!
Meze, Summer 2008
Just an update on how I’m getting on with my e book readers. At present we are evaluating four different readers: the Irex Iliad, the Sony reader, the BeBook and the CyBook. We are looking at how easy they are to get started with, readability, usability and their different functionalities. For example, whether it’s possible to annotate them, how easy it is to read pdfs, which formats work on each reader and how the availability of resources affects choice. We’re also asking folks to tell us how they envisage using a reader in their academic life – might a Masters student use one differently to a teacher,librarian or administrator, for example – and which features they find most useful and most irritating!
I have developed a short questionnaire covering these areas and would love to have some more data, so if you are using an ebook reader or know someone who does, please do get in touch.
Meze harbour, Summer 2008
I thought I would use a little of my NTF funding to buy a selection of E Book readers. My aim is to evaluate them for ease of use and to speculate on what kinds of implications and applications they might have for academic libraries. I will be looking at as many different models as possible, testing how they handle different formats, thinking about accessibility and potential uses within HE. I plan to ask a range of people (students, teachers, admin staff, library staff) to try them and give me (structured) feedback on some of the above points and more. I wondered if any people reading the blog might also have an ebook reader and might like to contribute their experiences, give me an opinion, or volunteer to try out a reader for me. If so, I’d love to hear from you (moira.bent@ncl.ac.uk)
Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne (pic from Louise)
This is it! The outcome of my National Teaching Fellowship Research!
It is almost 3 years since I started my National Teaching Fellowship and by the end of this month I have to send a brief report to the HEA to justify how I have spent their money. I thought it was time, therefore, to make some of the results of my research public. A copy of my project report Perceptions of Information Literacy in the transition to Higher Education is now available in the Newcastle Institutional Repository. It’s very personal journey – a mixture of research results, practical suggestions for my own library and my own personal reflections and ideas. If you find any of it of interest, I’d love to hear from you.
I had a pic of me here but I think Pippin is prettier!
Last week I gave a talk at Leeds Met University based around the topic of learning habits and information literacy. One of the case studies I mentioned generated a bit of interest so I thought it was worth mentioning here. I’ve been working with a couple of academic staff on ways to measure the impact of IL interventions and we have come up with an IL assessment criteria sheet. We’re using it to “score” evidence of IL in student work at the start and end of the first year. We used it with a group of students this week – alongside the feedback from the lecturer about the content of their work, they received a feedback sheet from me about various IL elements. I was pleased with how well this went, the students took it quite seriously and asked a lot of questions about how to improve their score. Time will tell whether future assessments demonstrate a difference, but giving feedback in this way certainly seemed to raise awareness amongst the students.
Another view of Hadrian’s Wall
Another nice plagiarism tutorial, this time from the University of Leicester
Pippin still likes to “help”
Picked up on the plagiarism mailing list – “a new wiki resource summarising research & effective practice in dealing with plagiarism & collusion” from Kevin Brace, HE Co-ordinator.JISC Regional Support Centre West Midlands, University of Wolverhampton.
a closer view of this lovely fungus!
Again from the plagiarism list – a guide to referencing from UWE. I’ll be adding these links to our Information Literacy Toolkit as soon as I have time.
“Big Grey” from Darryl in WA
Alison McNab alerted me to the existence of Zotero in a recent email highlighting a lawsuit currently in progress between it’s creators and Thomson Reuters, producers of Endnote. As the Endnote support person here at Newcastle I thought I should know more about Zotero and at first glance, I can see why Thomson Reuters might be worried! It is a free Firefox extension which does pretty much what Endnote does and which lives in the web browser itself. So far, I have just listened to their audio tour, but I’m looking forward to exploring it more as it looks very user friendly (maybe not quite the outcome Thomson Reuters are hoping for from the lawsuit!)
Pont du Gard, France (summer hols again!)
I see that the Google Chrome web browser has been launched today (competition for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox). It’s specifically designed to run web 2.0 apps more effectively. I’ve downloaded the beta and it’s a very clean and unfussy interface.
Tree frog in the Carmargue