The Shallows, a book to read in my opinion

I have just finished Nicholas Carr's new book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. The book looks at the impact of our use of the internet upon our brain. The book also looks at how we have used our brains in the past in using books and even how Aristotle was against the written word. The book also looked at Neurological studies about how the brain trains itself to collect data from bboks, learning and the internet.
In looking at the Internet, Carr note's how the brain can not keep its mind on doing one thing, and how we multi-task. Also, how the Kindle is not just a Book in electronic form, but changes the whole way we read.
Really fantastc book that cheered me up (not). Hopefully, my next book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) will cheer me up?

The social library.....

(Found via here. The Wall Street Journal has an article entitled Libraries Have a Novel Idea. It looks at how the Internet Archive is:-

Starting Tuesday, a group of libraries led by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library, are joining forces to create a one-stop website for checking out e-books, including access to more than a million scanned public domain books and a catalog of thousands of contemporary e-book titles available at many public libraries.

and that:-

To read the books, borrowers around the world can download and read them for free on computers or e-reading gadgets. Software renders the books inaccessible once the loan period ends. Two-thirds of American libraries offered e-book loans in 2009, according to a survey by the American Library Association. But those were mostly contemporary imprints from the last couple of years—say, the latest Stephen King novel.

But the more interesting news is that the internet archive has set up Openlibrary.org

[which] goes a step further by opening up some access to the sorts of books that may have otherwise gathered dust on library shelves—mainly those published in the past 90 years, but of less popular interest.

If you take an item out, only one copy is available due to copy right restrictions. My main concern though (via a friend mentioning it). If you have a digital copy, could you not just make another another digital copy? Isn't it just trying to put an analogue answers to a digital world?

Definitely would check the two articles.

Internet world 2010 tickets available

Internet world 2010 are available for free at present. The show is at Earls Court from 27.04.10 to 29.04.10. Who exhibits can be seen here. Worth a visit at that price.

Google Doing evil towards librarians and authors

Ok, I'm being sensational. but Google seem to want to have the library cake, eat it, take over the building and replace it as another server farm. I've been reading Randall E. Stross Planet Google: How One Company is Transforming Our Lives. Stross points out how Lawrence Lessig felt that using snippets of books was like a card catalogue at a library and therefore fair use. Others have disagreed.
Brewster Kahle has today felt that Google are taking advantage of the libraries digitalising there books. Kahle says of google:-

The promise of a rich and democratic digital future will be hindered by monopolies. Laws and the free market can support many innovative, open approaches to lending and selling books. We need to focus on legislation to address works that are caught in copyright limbo. And we need to stop monopolies from forming so that we can create vibrant publishing environments.

We are very close to having universal access to all knowledge. Let's not stumble now.

But will anyone say anything? I am doubting it.