Viewpoint: The knowledge gap narrows

A 200-year-old American publisher is completing the circle of knowledge. Peter Booth Wiley, chairman of John Wiley & Sons in Hoboken, New Jersey, has academics in India developing a new series of customized, electronic books that may one day become remedial text in U.S. universities.

India today represents Wiley's fastest-growing market, expanding at an annual 25 percent pace. That compares with a two-year average growth rate of 4 percent in Wiley's U.S. sales, Bloomberg data found. India is also emerging as a key center for developing educational content.

Wiley's new series of textbooks will be delivered electronically - as PDF files. They will be tested initially at second-rung engineering universities in India before being taken to China. If the experiment succeeds, the U.S. market may be the next destination, Wiley said.

Read the entire article (International Herald Tribune/Marketplace by Bloomburg)

Web 2.0: Which will be the next killer site?

Web 2.0

There seems to be little doubt at this point that participation websites are the biggest Web thing going right now. Google's purchase of YouTube for over $1B has certainly put the betting money on so-called user generated content sites.

In what direction is all of this taking us and who will be the next big Web 2.0 players? Hitwise is an online competitive intelligence service that provides daily insights on how 25 million people interact with over 900,000 websites in 160+ industries. Their research indicates that early adopters of the now legendary websites Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube are now using six websites that may be the next big thing.

Using demographic categories such as Money and Brains, Young Digerati and Bohemian Mix, in their analysis, Hitwise identified the following six websites that these categories are drawn to: Yelp, StumbleUpon, Veoh, WeeWorld, Imeem and Piczo.

Yelp describes itself as the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great (and not so great) in your world. People know that asking friends is the best way to find restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local. Yelp makes this fast and easy by collecting and organizing friends' recommendations in one convenient place. As of this time, it appears that the site is limited to major metropolitan areas.

StumbleUpon describes itself as a sharing and recommendation site. StumbleUpon uses ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages which friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended. This helps you discover great content you probably wouldn't find using a search engine. Some stumblers have favorite library pages.

Veoh is another video sharing site. Veoh is a suite of applications for collecting, publishing, and watching a vast selection of HD-quality video programming. Veoh is a diverse, virtual community of indie publishers coming together with their new audiences. Veoh.com and the Veoh Player software (installed on PCs or Macs) combine as a virtual television network that organizes, showcases, and delivers clear, full-screen video programming to anyone with a broadband connection.

imeem is a self-described online community where artists, fans & friends can promote their content, share their tastes, and discover new blogs, photos, music and video.

WeeWorld and Piczo are also social networking sites. Their focus is on a younger teenage audience so I will not describe them here.

As I looked at four sites, I tried to imagine their value for academic librarians. StumbleUpon seems the most likely site that an academic librarian could use. Numerous sites can be tagged and recommended by a member and then shared with students, faculty and colleagues. I will give it a try and share my experience with you in the future.

Related article: YouTube, Flickr & Wikipedia killers revealed (PC Advisor, 18 April 2007)

Get an A in Customer Service at ACCC

Press of Atlantic City, April 16, 2007 - Atlantic Cape Community College, in conjunction with the National Retail Foundation, recently opened its Institute for Service Excellence at the Hamilton Mall, Mays Landing.

ISE students receive comprehensive training in everything from business math to interpersonal communications. NRF certification is awarded upon program completion.

Read more about the ISE here.

Library 2.0 An Academic's Perspective

Library 2.0 An Academic's Perspective is a blog maintained by Laura B. Cohen, Web Support Librarian, University at Albany, SUNY. This blog is an exploration of Library 2.0 from the perspective of academic librarianship. L2 presents academic librarians with - you guessed it - challenges and opportunities, and this blog shares ruminations, speculations, news, proposals, and anything else that's relevant to blogging about this topic. [Description provided from L2 blog: http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/about.html] You may want to RSS or Atom Feed Laura's blog. As we all know, it is difficult to keep up with the constantly and rapidly changing information environment. L2 does a great job of addressing many issues of interest to librarians, including Wikis, social networking, podcasts and multimedia, and research tools. Unlike many other blogs I come across, content is updated regularly. The last entry, dated 12 April, is a discussion of Web 3.0. Yikes! I am just getting my brain around Web 2.0!

Economics 101: Hire part-timers

Economics 101: Hire part-timers - Adjuncts in Higher Edcuation - Cash-strapped colleges and universities in New Jersey are relying more on low-paid, part-time instructors, with more than a third of classes statewide taught by adjuncts.

The staff split is even higher at some community colleges, where as many as 50 percent of teachers are part-time lecturers.

Read the entire article (NorthJersey.com) here.

Related resource: Paul D Umbach (2007). How Effective Are They? Exploring the Impact of Contingent Faculty on Undergraduate Education. Review of Higher Education, 30(2), 91-118.

The Show Must Go On! - Despite State Budget Cuts

Friday, April 6, 2007, Herald News - The Pioneer Players of William Paterson University will present the musical, Seussical beginning April 12, despite recent state budget cuts which meant reductions in theatre staff and programming.

"It took away the most important thing in college for all of us," said communications major, Andrea Corbo. "We decided as students to take everything in our hands."

When an 800 signature petition and a round of meetings with administration proved unsuccessful, the Pioneer Players presented the Student Government Association with a business plan requesting a $30,000. The funds were approved making it "the biggest payout in SGA history."

For more on the remarkable Pioneer Players, read the full story here.

Contact the Pioneer Players at 973-720-2524 or at pioneer.players@gmail.com
Show information: http://www.ymha-nj.org/special_events.htm#seussical