Stanza: It’s a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.

http://www.lexcycle.com/

"Stanza is a free application for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Use it to download from a vast selection of over 100,000 books and periodicals, and read them right on your phone...

Forget carrying around stacks of books for school, work, or vacation. Stanza on your iPhone or iPod lets you hold a lifetime’s worth of reading in your pocket or handbag. Whether on a plane or waiting in line, your books are only a tap away...

Have an existing collection of electronic books? Have documents you want to view on your iPhone? Move them onto Stanza iPhone/iPod by using the free Stanza Desktop application for Mac & PC."

FYI, Stanza was acquired by Amazon.com.

Illegal file sharing...of scholarly material?

Interesting post on Brian Mathews' The Ubiquitous Librarian blog about file sharing. But not the kind of file sharing you might expect...

I imagine most of us are aware, at least vaguely, that illegal music file sharing is a widespread problem. Or at least, a problem from the standpoint of copyright law and music companies. File sharers definitely have a different perspective: why pay for something you can get for free? People borrow albums from their friends all the time, so what's the difference between that and downloading music from internet "friends"?

But file sharing is more than just music. It's also books and articles, including textbooks, e-books, current academic journals, and the list goes on. There is often a student perspective that there's little reason to learn and navigate complex library interfaces when they can just download whatever they need from a site they already use. The legal issues are clear: this is copyrighted material being illegally scanned, posted, and downloaded. But it's not a deterrent to many.

Related, there's a very notable file sharing trial going on right now to keep an eye on...

Colonel Mustard? No, Hyun-Duck & Kim In the Library with the Lead Pipe

Check out Hyun-Duck's & Kim's article "Narrating the 'Back Story' Through E-learning Resources in Libraries" in a blog called In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Also, read the "About" section of this unusual blog (a blog with an ISSN?). Our own Hilary Davis is one of the blog's main authors. Yesterday's article is by guest author Lisa Carter.

Videos are happening

Our website has a small but growing little collection of videos we've made to explain library issues, services, and collections. Many of you have seen Hyun-Duck's great "Peer Review in 5 minutes."

- And there are more at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials -- Hyun-Duck's video guides to business databases, E-101 from the Textiles Library, and others -- plus Dre's "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article" (okay, that's not a video, but multimedia nevertheless).

- and Josh Wilson has explained the LibX tool via screencasts at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/wolfwidgets/libx.html

- Brian Moynihan, a SILS student who did a work study with Kim Duckett, made a video to explain the Library Article Linker.

- and I've taken a shot at screencasts that explain our services to distance education students.

- and I bet I've forgotten some others, right?

Cool new direction.

Amazon in Big Push for New Kindle Model - NY Times

This article from today's NY Times discusses Amazon's new, upgraded Kindle and the expanding market of ebook readers.
-Joe