Library Journal has released its latest report on ebook usage. Big jump in undergraduate use of ebooks:

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/research/ebook-usage-reports/academic/

“Ebook usage/circulation for the 2010–2011 academic year, on average, was
24,700, up considerably from the reported ebook circulation figure of 6,849 in
2009–2010. There was a major surge of undergraduate ebook circulation.
Community colleges are still lagging behind other types of post-secondary
schools.

Two-thirds of respondents expect ebook circulation to increase in the next year.
Overall, the anticipated increase in circulation expected by libraries is not terribly
dramatic, actually declining slightly from +17% last year to +15% this year.
‘Use slowed last year, we don’t have a full picture of use this year. Prices too high
with few if any discounts.’”

Gartner has released an analysis of the top tech trends for 2013. Several interesting trends, but what caught my eye was the persistence of mobile apps:

For the next few years, no single tool will be optimal for all types of mobile application so expect to employ several. Six mobile architectures – native, special, hybrid, HTML 5, Message and No Client will remain popular. However, there will be a long term shift away from native apps to Web apps as HTML5 becomes more capable. Nevertheless, native apps won’t disappear, and will always offer the best user experiences and most sophisticated features.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2209615

Missed this from last week. Amazon is offering a new archival service which appears to be secure storage of data for pennies per gigabyte per month.

via Fierce Content

Good collection of tools via Bamboo DiRT. I really like how they’ve broken down the various silos of research tasks.

Excellent rundown on why the WorldCat support for Linked Data is a big deal.

Found via LJ’s InfoDocket: The Pew Internet report on eBook usage and perceptions.

For any project to get off the ground, a good name is a must:

The Art of Naming a Business

Interesting 4-part workflow describing a high-quality technique for copying audio from TechKing.

Networked Learning and Sympathetic Spaces in Libraries

Business Insider has an interesting argument indicating that Craiglist is being slowly, but surely, disrupted.

Generally speaking, Craigslist has been “good enough” to not be disrupted head-on. Nevertheless, the world moves on, and the gaps in their product (due to a stubborn obstinate refusal to invest in technology) grow wider and wider. As tablets, smartphones, etc disrupt, and craigslist doesn’t invest in those platforms, the feature gap grows wider.

The disruption that has happened has occurred on a category-by-category bases, as this graphic by Andrew Parker (http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/po…) shows:

That graphical analysis of sources for disruption is really interesting. What would the same type of analysis look like for academic libraries? Here’s a lightning quick example using the library I work at as an guinea pig. This image is not meant to be comprehensive, just a proof of concept. This doesn’t prove that libraries are imminently doomed to be disrupted, only that many services external to the academy would like a slice of the action. Let me know in the comments what I’m missing.

Active Sources of Library Disruption: