I love it - Christie Todd Whitman is on Letterman tonight and she just rolled onto the stage on a Segway, no problems! "It's amazing what happens when you turn it on," says Dave!

Best of... Lists and Library OPACs

"The brain child of Bill Turner at Brilliant Corners, Lists of Bests provides a '...one-stop shop to find all the 'best of' books, music, and movie lists.' In addition, the site also provides '... a way for you to keep track of the books you've read, the CDs you've listened to, and the movies you've watched from the lists. You'll have an easy way to see what holes you need to fill in for each list.'

Each item on a list also has a detail page that displays some basic stats and information from AllConsuming.net on blog entries made recently about the item. A rating system is also in place as well....

I can easily imagine libraries making use of the site's SOAP API web services in some fashion and incorporating links to the lists if they have an HTML based OPAC. This could allow patrons to maintain their progress on a given list by using the library's OPAC.

Imagine a patron making their way through the Booker Prize Winners or Sundance Film Festival 'Grand Jury Prize' Winners and checking off items as they progress through the lists right from the OPAC or a Udell:LibraryLookup style service that allows for someone browsing Amazon, etc. to do the same." [...useless miscellany]

Excellent idea, Eric! Hey, Art....

If your library is using or is planning to install RFID equipment, you may want to track the RFID Right to Know Act of 2003 (Summary Of The Bill). The intent is to "protect consumers against unwittingly purchasing products embedded with remote surveillance devices" by requiring appropriate labels on all products containing RFID chips. It hasn't been introduced yet (the group behind it is still seeking a Congressional sponsor), but this will become a big issue as more and more companies start using RFID products. Read more at the press release.

While libraries would never compromise their patrons' privacy, we probably need to be more proactive noting this and setting appropriate policies. [via Privacy Digest]

Harry Potter & the Public Library's Blog

"SJCPL has received our shipment of the new Harry Potter title (read all the LIS news here!). Joe our Head of Collection Development posted to the SJCPL Book Blog yesterday. This to me is a perfect example of the timeliness of the Public library Weblog. Before, Joe might think 'Wow, I'd like to put a pic of all those Harry Potter boxes up on the library's Web site...' He might call the Web developer or one of the IT people. A photo might be taken...hopefully with the digital camera.... That bit might not even get up on the site until a few days later. Now, Joe can run to his Mac, fire up iBlog and make a blog post pretty darn quick. I ran over with the NRDT Sony digital camera and snapped the pics and fired them off to him via iPhoto and the Apple Mail app...

If this works out -- this blog experiment at SJCPL -- I'm all for utilizing blogs wherever they can make generating content easier!" [Tame the Web]

I received the following message from Gemstar in my email today:

"It is with deep regret that Gemstar eBook Group Limited must announce that we are scaling back our eBook operations and that we will ultimately be winding them down. We are both proud of, and grateful for, your support and would have preferred to continue our business in its present form. Unfortunately, however, we are not able to do so under today's difficult market conditions.

We are writing now to explain the changes we are making immediately and to describe the services that will continue to be available for at least the next three years. Effective immediately, we will no longer be selling eBook devices. To enable current users to purchase additional content, we will continue to sell content until 5 PM PDT on July 16, 2003, at which point we will cease to sell all books and periodical issues - either directly to customers or through Powells.com. During this period, we will reduce the price of most books (including Hillary Clinton's popular new memoirs) to 40% off the publisher's suggested list price in appreciation for your continuing support and in recognition of the limited period (described below) during which your Online Bookshelves will remain available.

Subject to these changes, for at least the next three years, users will be able to continue to use their eBook devices and content under the same arrangements as they do today. Specifically, to promote your continued use and enjoyment of your existing content, we will continue to maintain and store purchased content on your private Online Bookshelves at least through July 16, 2006 so that you may download content to your eBook device. We will also continue to provide the newly released Personal Content feature available through the web bookstore (http://www.gemstar-ebook.com and then click 'Personal Content') at least through July 16, 2006. We will decide prior to July 16, 2006 whether to continue to operate the eBook servers that support these services or to shut the servers down after that date and will provide you advance notification of any such shutdown. Whenever the servers are shut down, your content will need to be stored locally on your eBook device or in supplemental expansion memory that you would acquire from third party sources.

With regard to your eBook devices, we will continue to honor the warranties we provided on the GEB 1150 and GEB 2150 devices that we sold. Users who purchased devices from other suppliers should continue to seek warranty service from those suppliers pursuant to the warranties they provided.

To permit you to continue to enjoy your eBook content even if your out-of-warranty device should fail, we will provide a replacement device from our current inventory for so long as existing supplies last during the period our servers remain in operation. In some cases, these replacement devices will be a different model than your current device. Such replacements will be available to all eBook users, not just those who purchased their devices from us. In appreciation of your support, these replacements will be made available at no charge to you other than a $30 shipping and handling fee and accordingly will not carry any warranties (either express or implied). For more information on how the replacement program will work, please see our web site http://www.gemstar-ebook.com.

Some of you purchased GEB 1150 and GEB 2150 devices from SkyMall or our eBook online store under a 60-day refund policy. If you purchased one of these devices, you may obtain a refund by sending an email containing your name and the address to which the device was shipped to refunds@ebook.gemstar.com within 60 days after your date of purchase. Refund checks will be sent in six to eight weeks.

Some of you have also paid for content not yet received through subscriptions for periodicals or through the Monthly Content Plan. As soon as possible after July 16, 2003, we will refund any bookstore credit balances that may exist for undelivered periodical issues, Monthly Content Plan contracts, or other service credits. We will first attempt to issue credit to the credit card of record for your account. If we are unable to issue a credit card credit, we will then attempt to send you a refund check. It is therefore important that all customer account information including name, credit card information, and address is accurate and current. To verify and update your account information, you may:

1. Go to the online eBook bookstore at www.gemstar-ebook.com

2. Select Log-In from the top navigation bar

3. Enter an eBook ID and password and then review and update your account information

For further information on our plans and services, please see our web site http://www.gemstar-ebook.com.

Thank you for your support for the eBook business. We hope you will continue to enjoy your eBook devices and content under the arrangements we have described above."

While I hate to see ebooks decline even further, this was entirely predictable. If you're going to hang your hat on proprietary standards and dedicated devices, you'd better be prepared for the worst. The whole point of ebooks is portability. I knew this genre of ebook technology was dead the minute they locked down their content to the point where I couldn't put it on a new ebook reader that they themselves had manufactured. I completely gave up years ago when they stopped allowing users to load their own content onto the devices.

It's a shame, but the truth is that we can do better. The lesson here is don't get hung up on paranoia and DRM. The Apple iTunes Store can attest to that basic fact.

Top Ten Things Going Through President Bush's Mind At This Moment (Falling off a Segway)

10. "Damn you, Al-Qaeda!"

9. "I'm sure Thomas Jefferson fell off his Segway every now and then"

8. "It looked so easy on 'The Jetsons'"

7. "I misunderestimated my center of gravity"

6. "Thank God no one got a picture of this"

5. "Only 4 days 'til Hulk! Only 4 days 'til Hulk! Only 4 days 'til Hulk!"

4. "Damn, this thing would give Cheney, like, 3 heart attacks"

3. "Congratulations, Segway -- you just joined the axis of evil"

2. "To distract everyone, bomb the hell out of Syria"

1. "AHHHHHHHHH!" [Late Show Top Ten]

In case you didn't see the pictures....