The Home Stretch...

What am I going to do with my MP3 player? Excellent question. Honestly, I'm not sure. I thought about giving it to my mom or brother. I have a soon to be six-year-old niece, and maybe this is a fun introduction to her for technology. Or maybe I'll just be selfish and keep it for myself. I already have one, but maybe I dedicate this one to audio books and the other to music. So there!

I have to say, LibVibe is totally cool! What a neat audio snapshot of what is happening across libraries across the country. Even cooler would be to hear about OCLS on there. The adult program for Baby Boomers Month they talked about down in Broward County sounds like so much fun! We need to do something like that!

So, tomorrow is the 4th of July. I've been making the same dessert for the past 10 or 12 years. I came across it in one of those little cookbooks you buy in the grocery line. Super simple but soooo yummy! You take buttermilk biscuit dough (I get the Publix generic brand.), roll each biscuit in butter, then in sugar and bake according to directions. Split the biscuit, put fresh blueberries and strawberries in the middle and top with fresh, homemade whipped cream. Unbelievable!

As we celebrate this day of freedom, all of our troops are in my thoughts and prayers. May they stay safe and come home soon.

Copyright, digital rights...um, who's right?

I gotta tell ya, my head was spinning after wading through all of this copyright stuff. I respect that creators of content deserve to receive the royalties for their works. I do believe that it has gotten pretty expensive. Is that because they have to charge more since more and more people are downloading illegally? Or are they just like the rest of the world raising prices in general? I think that perhaps downloading music should be cheaper since there isn't a physical product and packaging required. Just a few clicks and there it is, but I doubt we'll see a legal product soon that will make that happen. As a library, we are never sure what people are doing with the great materials we let them check out, but I'm certain not all transactions are copyright simpatico.

In terms of DRM, I will say that I personally chose to purchase an MP3 player just so I could download audiobooks from OCLS and have more downloading options.

I checked out the social music networks. Liveplasma was pretty cool. I tried Bon Jovi and Juan Luis Guerra. I was surprised with some of the results, which I guess it the point to hook me on to other musicians. I didn't actually sign up for any accounts, but will keep it in mind when I'm looking for something fresh or if I need help when a patron asks for something related to a liked artist.