Matt Goyer has some excellent posts about the music industry:

• I think the music industry has a lot to learn from the porn industry
• Let us examine that 3.6 billion figure
• I don't buy CDs and I know I'm not alone

I, too, would pay for most of the things Matt proposes in that last link. The problem, though, is that there's little room for libraries in these scenarios. If the rights management on the digital files is too strict, libraries can't lend them out. On the other hand, if it's too lax, then the files are easily copied while checked out, which probably won't happen given the RIAA's stance. Maybe that should be one of the "good faith" gestures from the RIAA when they sit down to the table with the tech industry - a provision for library use. They've exempted libraries in other areas... why not this one?

Paul sends along an article about Bookshare Takes Page from Napster.

"Empowered with a special exemption from copyright law, Bookshare hopes to avoid the bitter legal fight that bogged down Napster and prove Napster's subversive technology can be applied for social good.

Bookshare, based in Palo Alto, California, is building an online library of books scanned into audio and Braille formats for the exclusive use of the blind and people with reading problems such as dyslexia.

The target audience, about 5 million people nationwide, qualifies Bookshare for a copyright exemption created in 1996 to encourage greater distribution of literature to the blind and reading-impaired." [at CNN]

Sheree alerted me to this site a few months ago because her Board President came across it and he wanted to know if there was a way the Homer Library could do to collaborate with them. Barry is blind, so naturally he's very interested in this service. I emailed them some questions, but I never got a response. It's probably time to try again.

The Glass Engine

"A truly cool little app that indexes Mp3 samples of over 60 compositions by Philip Glass. Play with the buttons or drag the blue bar at the top of the screen to browse by year (with or without a filter thrown on to get just film scores, opera, etc.). Drag the second series of blue bars to get presented with other selections with more or less joy, sorrow, intensity, density and velocity." [MetaFilter]

This is very cool, and it's a great way to listen to Glass' compositions. I wonder if something like this could be set up to allow browsing through a library's digital audio collection (someday, when we have them). When you find something you want to hear more of, you click a button to check it out.

I like Masukomi's new design, too. [via Scripting News] Hopefully I'll get around to designing my own Radio template in another month or so. This particular post caught my eye:

"Almost 1/4 of US workers telecommute, says study [MacCentral]

Personally I find it hard to believe that that number is even remotely accurate. I don't know a single person who telecommutes. I know they exist, but I never encounter them and every time I have been offered a contract position i have had to work on the premisis even though doing so walk almost always a waste of time, gas, and effeciance. Sure there are some freelance coders and designers out there... but 24%? No way do 1 in 4 people out there telecommute. If they did we woudln't have these massive traffic jams every morning at 8 in every american city with one person in each car heading to work."

I find this difficult to believe, too. Not in the future, but in the now. I talk a lot about how libraries need to become more portable in order to serve the Net Gens in their world, but this is another group of people we need to keep in mind as we design our remote services. Just because they're working at home doesn't mean they can drop whatever they're doing and take a drive over to the library to use our resources. In fact, these are the folks who embrace instant messaging because they can just dash off a note or a question to anyone around the world. Except their local library. Hopefully that will change.