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Digital Publishing
Wikipedia – spread the love
Jul 4th
Wikipedia has announced it is testing a new way of sharing accolades for content.
In a blog post, the organisation outlines how important positive feedback is to contributors and editors. 78% of contributors stated that they are more likely to contribute in the future if others are complimentary about their efforts.
Wikipedia calls the ‘Wikilove’ initiative ‘an experiment in appreciation’. It simplifies the feedback process and enables users to send barnstars or other (even customised) symbols of appreciation.
International usability and website design
Jun 9th
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen shares the findings of usability studies conducted in Australia, China and the UAE. The tests covered websites, intranets and mobile apps/sites. His key findings and recommendations include:
- Headlines and links are REALLY important. Irrespective of the ‘direction’ of reading (left to right languages/ or right to left), all users focus attention on the first few words. Interest quickly wanes.
- Multilingual search is ideal. At the very least make allowances for both British and US English. Be kind to poor spellers.
- Everyone needs an internationalised site. But be aware of local differences. Australian users favoured a dot.au domain. Arab users were more likely to trust international sites. Localised sites can be used to target specific, important, regional markets.
Personal archiving for literary greats
Apr 28th
How will the literary researchers of the future be able to understand the thought processes of great authors? With handwritten manuscripts, the authors notations, edits and revisions are captured on the page, which can themselves be captured digitally. A page of Jane Austen’s mansucript for Persuasion for example, shows how she worked to refine the language and tone of her work.
The sale to the British Library of the archive the poet Wendy Cope included personal items such as school reports and 40,000 emails. The poet had ‘displayed an archival consciousness’ and her wide ranging and rich archive will be catalogued and made available to researchers.
Meanwhile, BBC Radio 4 this week broadcast Tales from the Digital Archive, featuring an interview with the British Library’s first Curator of Digital Mansuscripts. The programme explores how technology, far from cutting researchers off from the creative process, can actually become part of the archive itself. At Emory University in the US, the computers on which Salman Rushdie wrote his bestsellers are held in an archive where they are as valued as highly as any leather-bound hand-written manuscript.
Perhaps there are career opportunities for information and archive specialists to work alongside great authors and help them to maintain their creative archives!
And as a postscript, the marvellous website Letters of Note publishes a covering letter from 14-year old Stephen King who sent one of his stories for consideration by Spaceman Magazine in 1961. The story was rejected…
What do students REALLY want?
Jan 19th
In an interesting blog post, Stephen Abram considers the findings of a recent (US) research report. The original research was conducted by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and asked US college students about their format preferences for textbooks. BISG found that ‘nearly 75% of students…say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than etext form’. Reasons cited for this preference included the potential resale value of the books and its ‘permanence’.
About 12% of the students surveyed said the prefer etexts to printed texts because of lower cost and portability while 11% preferred to rent textbooks.
Stephen Abram’s interpretation is slightly different. The survey was conducted before what he terms the ‘explosion’ of affordable tablets and e-readers in the consumer market which will almost certainly impact the uptake and acceptability of etexts. He also feels that students considered a ‘polarised’ view (either print OR etext) when in fact a hybrid model that combines e-texts with books would be much more likely.
Abram also states that it is often difficult for people who are surveyed to compare a situation they know (in this case text books) and an ‘imagined future state’. The e-text space is evolving with textbooks and library research services beginning to integrate. The space should be watched closely, says Abram.
Readers ready for digital
Nov 14th
A new international study by Bain and Company suggests that by 2015 ebooks will represent up to 25% of the global book market and that 15-20% of the global population will own a digital reading device.
The study researched consumers in France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the UK and the US to explore how digital devices were changing reading behavours.
The report suggests that up to 90% of respondents stated they were unwilling to pay for online news, with respondents from France being the least likely to pay. Those who owned a digital device claimed they were reading more books as a direct result.
Building audiences through digital collections
Oct 25th
On 22nd October 2010 listeners to BBC Radio’s History of the World in a 100 Objects series discovered the final item chosen by the Museum’s Director to bring the collection up to date.
The ‘100 objects’ series has been a multimedia success – a radio programme, an illustrated book of the series, television tie-in programmes including one for children – all supported by web content and podcasting. A key strength of the programme has been that you can view the items being described online (although in fact such is the power of the spoken word that seeing the images is not always necessary).
The digitisation of collections seeks to broaden access to, and build new audiences for, cultural collections of all kinds. In the digital space, new and imaginative virtual collections can be created, offering new interpretations and building audience engagement.
This is the key driver behind Europeana.eu funded by the European Commission. One of its latest online exhibitions Reading Europe: European culture through the book, features 1000 rare and fascinating books chosen by the curators of national libraries. The collection may be browsed by timeline, country of origin, language and subject area.
Keeping up to date
Oct 18th
Phil Bradley’s presentation at Internet Librarian International had audience members in a tweeting and note taking frenzy. He explained how he uses a range of tools to help him keep up with new technologies and how he uses social networking tools to share his knowledge and insight with his networks.
He then went on to share his latest discoveries, highlighting tools that can help us perform a range of tasks from file conversion; checking website availability; password security checking; wordcloud generation and much more. Phil has been sharing his presentations via Slideshare since 2006. This presentation (‘What Phil has found’) is, of course, available there too.
Information Industry Apps for the iPad
Apr 29th
With the iPad selling 300,000 units on launch day, another 200,000 in its first week, and shortly to be available (we hope) in Europe, Barbara Quint provides a timely overview of apps available from traditional information industry players.
The Times Reveals New Charges for Online Access
Mar 26th
The Times and The Sunday Times today announced the charges for access to online news content that will apply from June.
The cost will be £1 a day (the same as the print edition), or £2 for one week’s subscription. Paid customers will get access to both sites and ’seven day subscriptions’ to the print editions will include web access for free.
Two new websites www.thetimes.co.uk and www.thesundaytimes.co.uk will launch in early May, replacing Times Online, the current combined site. This is the first time the two papers have separated their online entities. The new sites will be available for a free trial period to registered customers before the paywall is erected in June.
Rebekah Brooks, Chief Executive of News International said that tabloid titles The Sun and News of the World would follow behind the paywall but did not specify when.
John Witherow, Editor of The Sunday Times, promised ”new digital features to enhance our coverage and encourage interactivity” and compared the £2 a week charge to “the price of a cup of coffee”. Whether readers will think this is an investment worth making in the face of free news content available elsewhere remains to be seen.
British Library Announces UK Web Archive
Mar 23rd
The British Library recently announced the launch of the UK Web Archive, which will store and make accessible every site in the .uk top-level domain. The project will deploy an impressive array of text-mining and analysis software - Avi Rappoport reveals the details in Information Today’s Newsbreaks.
