Move Over Wikipedia Google Knol is Open for Business

Move over Wikipedia Google's Knol has officially opened its doors. Knol will feature "knols", which Google is defining as "authoritative articles about specific topics." Topics will range from scientific concepts, to medical information.

Many believe that Wikipedia's chief rival will be Knol. While this may be true...there are several significant differences between Knol and Wikipedia. Some of the more important ones include Knol's requirement for signed and verified authorship. Additionally, though the community will be permitted to edit entries, authors will be given the opportunity to moderate changes.

Gee...this girl can't help but wonder whether Knol's content will receive special treatment regarding ranking and return on search with Google???

Here's the link:

http://knol.google.com/k#

Check it out!

From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America

OCLC was awarded a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding. Some of the findings of that study include the fact that library funding support is only "marginally related to library visitation." The perceptions of librarians are an important predictor of support for funding and voters who see the library as a 'transformational' force as opposed to an 'informational' source are more likely to vote to increase taxes in support of the library.

You can download the report in its entirety at:

http://www.oclc.org/reports/funding/

Colorado Book "Borrower" is Headed to Jail

A Denver man accused of checking out hundreds of library books and DVD's and then selling them on Craigslist and the like is sentenced to ten years in prison.

Full story at:

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jul09/0,4670,ODDBorrowingBandit,00.html

Google must divulge viewing log

Google is currently embroiled in a courtroom battle with Viacom over copyright infringement. An American court has just recently ordered Google to divulge the viewing logs of anybody who has ever watched a video on YouTube. This latest ruling has outraged digital rights activists who see this as a serious set-back to privacy rights.

Full story at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7488009.stm