An Inside Look at the New Seattle Public Library

"Steffers writes 'Here is a look at the new Seattle Public Library. The 360 tour is pretty cool and the article attached is interesting. The library definitely looks futuristic but it looks incredible in the night photos.' " [LISNews.com]

Cool views, but I also wanted to note that this is my second repost of an LISNews item tonight. While Blake is getting lots of help to defray the cost of running the site, please consider helping Save LISNews if you haven't already done so!

Audible Hits the Black

"The latest issue of Publishers Weekly reports that digital spoken word e-tailer Audible Inc. has recorded its first profitable quarter. Their revenue increased by 68% for the first quarter of 2004. Librarians pay attention! We need to be thinking of ways to provide our users with downloadable spoken word audio. The market indicates that this will be more popular than the failed attempts to garner interest in e-books." [LISNews.com]

This is GREAT news because Audible is a library-friendly company. Proof: we just closed the second enrollment period for ListenIllinois, our collaborative Audible group purchase with the ListenOhio folks, and we added eight more libraries (which gives us a total of 20)! So a formal welcome to the following:

Edwardsville Public Library
Glen Ellyn Public Library
Harvard Diggins Library
Highland Community College Library
North Suburban Library District
Morton College Library
Roxana Public Library District
Wilmington Public Library District

In addition, several of the existing participants are adding players and licenses, so I'm officially declaring this project a success. :-)  Hopefully I can spend some time this summer gathering statistics to back up this claim.

We'll open enrollment again in September, so Illinois libraries should plan their budgets accordingly. Contact me for details if you're interested!

More CD Buyers Try Out Digital Song Stores

"Consumers who subscribed to a music service such as RealNetworks' Rhapsody purchased an average of 11 CDs last year. Those who used legal music downloading sites such as Apple Computer's iTunes bought approximately 10 CDs, according to the report. Those who used peer-to-peer file-sharing sites averaged eight CDs, whereas those who did none of these bought an average of six CDs.

"Our research shows that it's the people who are really into music that are beginning to adopt paid digital services as an additional way of acquiring and enjoying music, and so far, these services are living side by side with traditional CDs," Russ Crupnick, president of NPD MusicWatch, said in a statement. 'As the industry matures, and digital music becomes even more mainstream, it remains to be seen just how much paid digital music will affect the market for CDs.' " [CNET News.com]

It would be interesting to see if those numbers went up if library patrons could listen to digital music online at home for free using their library card for authentication. Would they then spend even more money on CDs or purchasing tracks because they were able to hear them legally in their entirety first?

Conversely, it would be interesting to do a study of library patrons who borrow CDs from libraries to see if they end up purchasing more music than those that don't. Perhaps the music industry should be working more closely with libraries as listening outlets.

Great day with Michael Stephens and Bob Lewandowski (Bob, you need a blog!) today! I'm going to try and bring them back for a duplicate session on tech training for staff and patrons this fall, so Chicagoland area librarians should watch for that. Bonus points: you get to see their video!

I always enjoy talking with them, and Aaron even joined us. Good food, great company! Pictures on the moblog.

BTW, don't forget to check out Michael's Ten Tips for Technology Trainers in the Trenches!

And on a final note, it became painfully obvious today that my member libraries could use a "tech training" group, so we're going to discuss starting one at SLS. I'll keep you posted.