U.S. digital project signals the rise of versatile e-textbooks

Michael Geist, Toronto Star, February 27, 2011 

"The technology community is fond of referring to announcements that fundamentally alter a sector or service as a “game changer.” Examples include the debut of the Apple iTunes store in 2003, which demonstrated how a digital music service that responds to consumer demands was possible, and Google's Gmail, which upended web-based email in 2004 by offering one gigabyte of storage when competitors like Microsoft's Hotmail were providing a paltry two megabytes...." continue reading in Toronto Star

First public library in nation to drop Dewy Decimal

Libraries can adapt and follow other models for arranging the library resources (esp., book shelves). Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress, and other classification schemes are one way to arrange books. Here is an innovative way to arrange library books, as in book stores. Does this, new way, help and increase user-friendliness? Too early to answer.

See the details here:

EXTRACT:
The Prelinger Library is a small privately owned "public library" in San Francisco with the unique philosophy that browsing library stacks can reveal new knowledge, if the books are arranged for browsing. This is counter to most public libraries who rely on computer terminal searching, databases and the Dewey Decimal system to atomize books and subjects, with stack browsing a sort of random after effect, and in some places--like the Library of Congress--normally not even allowed. Now a (real) public library in Arizona has joined the revolution and claims to be the first public library in the nation to drop the Dewey Decimal system. Instead, books will be shelved by topic, similar to the way bookstores arrange books. The demise of the century-old Dewey Decimal system is overdue, county librarians say: "People think of books by subject. Very few people say, 'Oh, I know Dewey by heart.' " continue reading:
First public library in nation to drop Dewy Decimal