Does Fiction Influence Girls' Health?

Researchers at Duke University have found links between young adolescent girls' reading of specific books and improvements in their health. The books in question are a series entitled "Beacon Street Girls" and address topics like "popularity, weight problems alcohol and divorce". Read the whole story here.

The Epistemology of Wikipedia

Yes, another Wikipedia article. But Wikipedia really is the elephant in the room for any discussion of online information, and this essay is a useful addition to the dialogue.
The author, a computer scientist, provides a very even-handed discussion of what constitutes and defines "truth" and knowledge in the Wiki world. There is something here for both critics and advocates of the the Wikipedia phenomenon.

The Changing Role of Reference

During my first years at CCVI Library, substantive reference requests from students were common. Nowadays I can count the number in a month on one hand. Obviously this is result of the advent of online information sources and changing student perception of how information is obtained. This article from Duke University takes a wide-ranging look at how reference services relate to the new paradigm. The details are from a university library perspective, but many of the problems and perhaps the solutions are relevant to school libraries. For example, real-time online reference could be an interesting experiment. The tools needed to try it already exist. RR

How Barack Obama Used the Social Web

Here is the fascinating story of how Obama, who will be the first post-boomer President, used the "Long Tail" of the Web and social software like Facebook to help capture the election. His central task was to build an online community.
The concept of online community will likely be increasingly important in all libraries, including school libraries since it holds the promise of reaching the "long tail" of the student population that traditionally are light users of the library.
Currently there appears to be little consensus on how to build an online library user community, nor what software tools are appropriate.

More About the Google Book Project

Is the Google Book project as significant as the advent of the printing press? Some media pundits are claiming this could be the case. See this piece for a good overview of the project and its potential importance.

Google Book Scanning Project

Google has scanned seven million books that are held in large collections. Over 4 million of these are out of print. The project was held up pending a lawsuit from publishers and authors claiming improper use of copyrighted material. The suit has now been settled. Google will continue scanning books, making twenty percent of every book visible at no charge. Images of full books will be available for purchase. This probably has limited importance for secondary schools, but it demonstrates the huge quantity of digital information that is becoming available.