Judge orders woman to return two library books or go to jail
A judge has ordered JoAn Karkos of Lewiston, Maine to return two copies of It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health, which she checked out the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last year.
In September, Karkos sent letters to the libraries, including checks to pay for the cost of the books. The letters said, in part, “I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents. I will not be returning the books.”
The judge has ordered Karkos, who is being held in contempt of court, to return the books and pay a $100 fine by Friday at 4pm. If she doesn't comply, she'll be arrested.
In 2007, NPR reported on the incident, providing several links, including a link to a letter Karkos wrote to the Sun Journal.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
community property library books are
Boingboing has:
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
country feedback: audio homunculi
Text analysis of body parts mentioned in popular music lyrics, by genre. Above, see 'country'. Check out all the booty in hip-hop, too: http://www.fleshmap.com/listen/index.html
Friday, August 22, 2008
webhead, i got the
I've been online in what feels like a heavy way for about 10 years now. In the last 3 years or so, I've spent an enormous amount of time using the web to learn and to share info. I've composed a book online, with a web-based word processor. So. It's time for a break.
I'm sure I'll post to my blogs now and then, especially to the anonymous ones, and I'll keep using e-mail and engaging with the web world somewhat. But I do hope to diminish my time on the web significantly now, to go analog for a while. Mostly analog. Mostly pencil and page. See what that does to my neurons... then allow myself the treat of surprise when I move back online heavily again a few years out. The borders will be blurry, but I've just got to get away from it for a while.
If you hear a bit less from me, don't take it personal-like. But I'm writing a Western, and writing it online just hasn't felt right. I'll still take work through my website, do research, I'll still hunt in databases, and still help in what quarters I can with those I'm pitched in with on the web. But fewer hours-per-day, now, until it's minutes per day.
Let's see what happens.
I'm sure I'll post to my blogs now and then, especially to the anonymous ones, and I'll keep using e-mail and engaging with the web world somewhat. But I do hope to diminish my time on the web significantly now, to go analog for a while. Mostly analog. Mostly pencil and page. See what that does to my neurons... then allow myself the treat of surprise when I move back online heavily again a few years out. The borders will be blurry, but I've just got to get away from it for a while.
If you hear a bit less from me, don't take it personal-like. But I'm writing a Western, and writing it online just hasn't felt right. I'll still take work through my website, do research, I'll still hunt in databases, and still help in what quarters I can with those I'm pitched in with on the web. But fewer hours-per-day, now, until it's minutes per day.
Let's see what happens.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
kevin kelly on the one machine
The next 5,000 days of the Internet: we makeout with the web; heavy-petting; particularity and specificity for info-objects describing regular objects; web overlays reality; internet of things; other excellent points:
Monday, August 18, 2008
ufostalker: mufon live map database
Using a google maps api, MUFON has created a live feed and archive-search database for UFO sightings. Very cool for aerial anomaly buffs and serious investigators alike.
Friday, August 08, 2008
from a senator from Texas
Dear Mr. Evans:
Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). As you know, FISA passed the Senate on July 9, 2008, and I appreciate having the benefit of your comments.
Gathering communications intelligence is one of America’s front lines of defense in the war on terror. As you may know, Congress passed the Protect America Act in August 2007, modernizing FISA to give intelligence professionals the tools they urgently need to gather information, while still protecting the civil liberties of Americans. Senator John Rockefeller introduced the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 (S. 2248) on October 26, 2007, to continue this vital work. S. 2248 creates an expanded role for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, empowering the court to have more scrutiny over surveillance procedures and acquisitions. Additionally, this legislation increases congressional oversight by strengthening reporting and auditing requirements by the Inspector General.
The changes to FISA under S. 2248 also provide civil immunity for communications carriers that assisted the government with surveillance in the past, as well as creating civil immunity for future assistance. Communications carriers are currently facing billions of dollars in lawsuits for their role in assisting the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program instituted after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This program worked to thwart future terrorist attacks by intercepting communications between suspected terrorists overseas and potential operatives within the United States. Though acting without a court warrant, the program was conducted under the President’s broad authority to protect and defend the nation. Communications carriers provided invaluable assistance, relying on official assurances about legality. While the process of litigation is integral to our system of laws, I believe it is unfair to punish the communications companies for patriotic compliance with the government’s war on terror.
Providing prospective civil immunity for communications carriers that assist government surveillance in the future is important to ensuring effective collection of intelligence. Communications technology has become so complex that our country needs the voluntary cooperation of carriers. Without it, our intelligence efforts will be severely debilitated. Providing immunity guarantees the needed cooperation of communications carriers who can rely on official assurances about necessity and legality. It is important to note that S. 2248 does not grant immunity to government officials.
S. 2248 overwhelmingly passed in the Senate Intelligence Committee, by a bipartisan vote of 13–2, and was passed by the Senate on February 12, 2008, by a bipartisan vote of 68–29. Unfortunately, this bipartisan Senate compromise was rejected by the House of Representatives, allowing FISA to expire on February 16, 2008, and leaving our nation’s intelligence community in the dark for a critical period of time.
In June 2008, the House of Representatives passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 6304), and on July 9, 2008, the Senate approved H.R. 6304 by a bipartisan vote of 69–28. I was pleased to see that members of Congress can work together in a bipartisan manner to improve our national security. H.R. 6304 currently awaits further consideration by President George W. Bush.
As a member of both the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, I am committed to ensuring that we appropriately balance our national security needs and the protection of our civil liberties. I believe that the amended FISA bill, including the immunity provision for communications carriers, strikes this much needed balance. I appreciate the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in the United States Senate, and am thankful for your comments about this important legislation.
Sincerely,
(Senator X, we'll call him)
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Appropedia Discussion Group
Appropedia community @ google groups:
http://groups.google.com/group/appropedia-community
Appropedia is the open encyclopedia of sustainable and appropriate technology at:
http://www.appropedia.org/
If sustainable technology interests you, see above links and join in the talk. Info sci and library folks have a lot to lend this movement.
http://groups.google.com/group/appropedia-community
Appropedia is the open encyclopedia of sustainable and appropriate technology at:
http://www.appropedia.org/
If sustainable technology interests you, see above links and join in the talk. Info sci and library folks have a lot to lend this movement.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
u.s. defense tech docs, declassified
Enter DTIC Public STINET
Coverage: 1965-present (Research Summaries); full text: 1924-present (selected documents)
Description: U.S. Defense Technical Information Center's technical reports and specifications (including DODISS), mostly in fields related to aerospace engineering and aerodynamics. STINET MultiSearch allows simultaneous searching of up to 34 databases including NASA, NIH, DOE, EPA, FDA, and USDA.
---
via UTA.
--
Reading: the Hiram Key; Shane Claiborne, Spook Country
Listening: I'm Afraid of Americans; The Man Comes Around
Weather: the zombie of Eduard
Monday, August 04, 2008
nra of the 4th amendment
...that Heston line abt taking away his 2nd amendment rights to bear arms "from his cold dead hands"... makes me think about a sort of "NRA of the 4th Amendment" -- may be budding with groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ALA, the ACLU. This has, increasingly, to do more with information than with objects, and that plants it firmly in library land.
How to "de-ACLU" it (such a hypothetical org), "de-geek it", de-liberal it in such a way that it became a popular movement in city and in country? How to make such an organization, standing up for 4th Amendment rights, smell less Ikea and more ProBass?
Maybe take a lesson from the NRA and use the org's lobby to do financial good for the likes of info-management and info-tools money makers. Lobby for the 4th amendment in such a way that Apple and MS and HP and NewsCorp and GE bolster the org with money to continue the lobby. Pragmatics, folks.
This won't happen over tea-time at the local library's book talk, sadly. This is going to take cash and ruthlessness -- all for the greater good, we would hope.
How to "de-ACLU" it (such a hypothetical org), "de-geek it", de-liberal it in such a way that it became a popular movement in city and in country? How to make such an organization, standing up for 4th Amendment rights, smell less Ikea and more ProBass?
Maybe take a lesson from the NRA and use the org's lobby to do financial good for the likes of info-management and info-tools money makers. Lobby for the 4th amendment in such a way that Apple and MS and HP and NewsCorp and GE bolster the org with money to continue the lobby. Pragmatics, folks.
This won't happen over tea-time at the local library's book talk, sadly. This is going to take cash and ruthlessness -- all for the greater good, we would hope.
Friday, August 01, 2008
seizing information without warrant
Thanks to the bizness folks and to the ACLU for making the DHS out this (the federales can seize your papers, your info storage devices, without warrant, without explanation. surprised?).
Seemed to me like we had an amendment in our constitution about that...
Check out Article IV, see if it jars any memories:
Now I'm getting fed up. You hear that ECHELON? The executive leg of this three legged stool is too long now, and the whole thing is about to topple over. Who is that good for? Who stands to gain?
Seemed to me like we had an amendment in our constitution about that...
Check out Article IV, see if it jars any memories:
Now I'm getting fed up. You hear that ECHELON? The executive leg of this three legged stool is too long now, and the whole thing is about to topple over. Who is that good for? Who stands to gain?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
patron granulation
granulated abilities with variations in patron account types.
has it been done yet?
you know, something like that. the social catalog seems to have opened the way for this kind of thing. holler if you're working on it already. maybe some of this has been hashed out in the debates of the corporate guys...
has it been done yet?
Welcome to Library X, which type of account would you like? your options are:
. The Buzz Plan: you can check out up to 100 items at once, but they're all due back within 48 hours. Stiff late fines go with this one, and a deposit of $x is required.
. The Daily: standard item numbers and return times. normal fines, no deposits.
. The Milquetoast: you can only have out 5 items at a time, but the items check out for a month. normal late fines after due date. For the slow, meandering, distracted reader. Low pressure, no pressure, no hassle!!!
. The Homebrew Plan: drop by to talk with our Circulation Librarian (meetings by appointment are best), to work out a customized account that meets your specific needs. Only interested in reading one genre? Can you make the case for a lower fine rate, or longer checkout periods? Maybe you're just into graphic novels, and you read really fast. We can take your particulars into account on a case-by-case basis. Signing up for a customized plan requires a mandatory deposit of $x.
you know, something like that. the social catalog seems to have opened the way for this kind of thing. holler if you're working on it already. maybe some of this has been hashed out in the debates of the corporate guys...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
ubuntu stuff
I was raising cane about Ubuntu, telling folks "my laptop is Microsoft FREE!", but you know, it's a like the man says about web browsers -- you can't get by with just one anymore. So if running multiple scripts in multiple sites is a hassle, or if Ubuntu has a bad day and won't load right, I have found myself using Vista. Tsk tsk. All that said, I'm a much mo happy man using Ubuntu 80% of the time than I was using Windows 100%.
cheap solar
Finally, this pulls the rug even out from under the Pickens Plan:
http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/global/the-age-of-cheap-solar-energy-now-to-be-precise-738
http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/global/the-age-of-cheap-solar-energy-now-to-be-precise-738
'The implication is clear: the global power economy is in the early stages of a shift as profound as the shift when gasoline began to be widely used. With new battery technology expected in the near future the issues around powering systems at night and handling spikes in demand my begin to be solved, resulting in a complete green power revolution.'
Thursday, July 10, 2008
ubuntu in yr library
Good old Ms West puts Ubuntu on some donated computers:
By the way, I guess you noticed I got my dates wrong on that FISA bill thing. But what the hell. Once you tell yr representatives that yr vote for their re-election is on the line, you've played the last hand. No ace card left, is there?
Monday, July 07, 2008
fisa vote tomorrow, 8 july
Today is the day to speak up. Tomorrow they vote.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/07/daniel-ellsberg-on-w.html
also:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=389&pg=makeACall
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/07/daniel-ellsberg-on-w.html
"Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel posts this video in which Tim Ferriss interviews Daniel "Pentagon Papers" Ellsberg about tomorrow's vote on warrantless wiretapping in the USA. If Congress passes this bill (the "FISA bill"), it will become legal for intelligence agencies to bulk-wiretap American citizens without a warrant, using data-mining to listen in on millions of Internet and phone connections. Ellsberg, a heroic former intelligence officer, is eloquent and uncompromising in his condemnation of this -- and he makes a good case that any Congressperson who votes for it is violating her/his oath to uphold the Constitution."
also:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=389&pg=makeACall
Action Alert: Tell Your Senators: "Don't Shred the Constitution this July 4th -- Reject Telecom Immunity!"
After the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate will vote on the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a bill that would betray the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president’s spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal program. Now that the House has passed the FAA, the Senate is the last front left in the battle against immunity, and every vote -- from cloture, to the amendments, to final passage -- counts.
Therefore EFF urges all patriots to celebrate the Fourth of July this year by demanding that their senators uphold the rule of law and stand up for civil liberties, by voting against the FAA and for the amendments to the bill that would eliminate or weaken its telecom immunity provisions.
or email them:
verbiage like:
I'm a constituent and I urge you to oppose telecom immunity and the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). As a constituent, I am very troubled that during this patriotic holiday season, the Senate appears ready to toss civil liberties and the rule of law out the window, and so I urge you oppose telecom immunity with every vote that you have when the FISA bill comes to the Senate floor on Tuesday, July 8th:
Vote "YES" on the Dodd-Feingold amendment, which would strip telecom immunity from the bill entirely.
Vote "YES" on the Bingaman amendment, which would delay implementation of telecom immunity until after Congress has received the Inspectors General report on the president's warrantless surveillance program.
Vote "NO" on the cloture motion to end debate on the FAA,
And finally, vote "NO" on the FISA Amendments Act, an unconstitutional and dangerous bill that would radically expand the president's spying powers and immunize the companies that helped him break the law.
with an emphasis on "YOUR RE-ELECTION DEPENDS on you FIGHTING FOR THE 4th AMENDMENT."
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
bidi books, bidibooks, bidimensional books
QR Code in print, [Kaywa reports]. Bidibooks, bi-dimensional (here it means 2d as in quick code) books, they're called in Madrid. But they are also bidi because they're both eye-readable, and phone-linkable to otro resources. An online appendix. Hell yes, people.
Or, as they say in Spain, "La hipertextualidad del papel es posible."
Or, as they say in Spain, "La hipertextualidad del papel es posible."
Monday, June 16, 2008
second life library quick note
In the last year I've heard folks speak on behalf of Second Life Library twice at conferences, and I've been in touch w/ SLL (infoisland.org) staff through this blog. I've yet to hear a good answer to the simple question how does Second Life help my patrons at my reference desk tonight?
The answers usually float around Mars, then veer toward institutional marketing, sweep back into a low-earth orbit around how cool it is to run around texting goth-dinosaur-bunnies.
Somebody, please, give me a better answer.
The answers usually float around Mars, then veer toward institutional marketing, sweep back into a low-earth orbit around how cool it is to run around texting goth-dinosaur-bunnies.
Somebody, please, give me a better answer.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Royal Mail and QR Code
Update: I was looking, I guess I should have said, to learn more about RM's use of QR. I mean, they do. As does the USPS... and FedEx, UPS... DHL. QR is common as can be, and it's meter-printed on just about any piece of mail you might pick up these days, nevermind parcels.
So, like, somebody at the RM ought to know something about it... and surely someone (lots and lots of folks) do... I just didn't get connected to the guy who knows the guys who know.
--
I sent an inquiry out to Royal Mail, looking to learn more about QR. Royal Mail wrote back to me, and suggested I google it:
-
-
LOL.
So, like, somebody at the RM ought to know something about it... and surely someone (lots and lots of folks) do... I just didn't get connected to the guy who knows the guys who know.
--
I sent an inquiry out to Royal Mail, looking to learn more about QR. Royal Mail wrote back to me, and suggested I google it:
-
Dear Mr Evans,
Thank you for your e-mail.
I apologise for the delay in replying but your email went to Royal Mail
Customer Services and they have forwarded it to us and it has now reached
the Website Helpdesk.
I am sorry but Royal Mail do have any information available 2-D ('quick
code')to give to customers.
Please try going to www.google.co.uk and type in "2-D('quick code')"
without the quote marks and you will find nearly 260,000 search results. I
am sure some of them will be of help to you.
If you have any further questions regarding the website,
please email at contactus@royalmail.com and quote your
reference number (RM0317-4398) in the subject. You can also
contact us by phone on 0845 60 60 406 from 08:00 - 18:00
Monday to Friday.
We hope you enjoy using our site and we look forward to your
next visit.
Regards
[Name]
Website Helpdesk
www.royalmail.com
www.parcelforce.com
www.postoffice.co.uk
Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered in
England and Wales. Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 148 Old
Street, LONDON EC1V 9HQ.
Mae'r Post Brenhinol yn un o enwau masnachu Grwp y Post Brenhinol ccc.
Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr. Rhif cofrestredig 4138203. Swyddfa
gofrestredig 148 Old Street LLUNDAIN EC1V 9HQ.
************************************************************ ***********
Royal Mail Group Limited registered in England and Wales registered number
4138203 registered office 148 Old Street London EC1V 9HQ
This email and any attachments are confidential and intended for the
addressee only. If you are not the named recipient, you must not use,
disclose, reproduce, copy or distribute the contents of this communication.
If you have received this in error, please contact the sender and then
delete this email from your system.
************************************************************ **********
-
LOL.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
the cost of a book
A salty cataloger reminded me (and whenever I get intensive time with tech processing folks I usually leave the meeting awed by their focus -- they turn the volume up on geek so high that I find myself tapping my feet) that a book costs a lot more than its list price, if it's a library book. There's air conditioning, lighting, all the stuff that goes along with housing; there is staff time and knowledge and care. Weeding the items around it... ordering items that encourage its use. The longer the book is with the library, the more its value grows.
Consider a tree. Kew acquires a rare walnut tree that grows in Souther Staffordshire, because they've payed a farmer from Silverdale ₤15 for a cutting he'd managed to pirate and cultivate. Over the course of that tree's lifetime, from sappling to gnarly great-grandad of the garden, over ₤15 per day may be spent on fertilizer, mulch, pruning, mowing -- all that has to go into maintaining a healthy tree. The lifetime cost of the tree is much more than that first 15...
Books aren't simple items. To risk another metaphor, books and their values are fractal. Not just four-dimensional, but not quite 5-dimensional...
Consider a tree. Kew acquires a rare walnut tree that grows in Souther Staffordshire, because they've payed a farmer from Silverdale ₤15 for a cutting he'd managed to pirate and cultivate. Over the course of that tree's lifetime, from sappling to gnarly great-grandad of the garden, over ₤15 per day may be spent on fertilizer, mulch, pruning, mowing -- all that has to go into maintaining a healthy tree. The lifetime cost of the tree is much more than that first 15...
Books aren't simple items. To risk another metaphor, books and their values are fractal. Not just four-dimensional, but not quite 5-dimensional...
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
wrong tool for the revolution
Fledgling Rebellion on Facebook Is Struck Down by Force in EgyptBy Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 18, 2008; A01CAIRO -- At 1:49 a.m. in an Internet cafe only then quieting after Cairo's daily rumble, 27-year-old Ahmed Maher worked at a computer. He wore the same shirt he had had on for two days. The essentials of his life on the run lay splayed out next to his keyboard -- car keys, cigarettes, prepaid cellphone.
Maher pursed his lips, typing intently. His dream of a people's uprising organized on Facebook was beginning to slip through his scrabbling fingers.
Worries about the risks of political activism in Egypt were spilling onto his screen. It won't work, one man wrote. The government's already infiltrated us, wrote another. This is stupid, wrote a third.
Since late March, 74,000 people had registered on a Facebook page created and run by Maher and a few other young Egyptians, most of them newcomers to activism. Even some of Egypt's older, more disillusioned proponents of democracy had let themselves hope that a social networking Web site created by American college students could become an electronic rallying point for protest against President Hosni Mubarak's 27-year rule.
But the experience of the Facebook activists showed the limits of technology as a means of organizing dissent against a repressive government. Maher would end up among what rights groups said were 500 Egyptians arrested during two months of political activism in Egypt -- and find himself stripped and beaten in a Cairo police station, he said.
where my jetpack is
I used to be like hell yeah, brother! where's my jetpack?! too... Angry about the future. Angry about the lack-of-future. Angry about the present?
But I kind of like Bruce Sterling's answer to that question... "Are you Chinese?".
Or, better, "you're not payin' fuckin' attention... you're all disillusioned and you're not actually looking at what's really happening."
Aside, Doktor Sleepless as a reaction or embodiment of this angst and disillusionment is worth reading.
But I kind of like Bruce Sterling's answer to that question... "Are you Chinese?".
Or, better, "you're not payin' fuckin' attention... you're all disillusioned and you're not actually looking at what's really happening."
Aside, Doktor Sleepless as a reaction or embodiment of this angst and disillusionment is worth reading.
extropianism as literary movement?
News to me, but it seems transhumanism is now considered to be a literary movement. Philosophy, yes. Political movement? ...could soon be. But artistic school?
Genre, I could see... but literary movement? Any artistes out there want to weigh in on this?
Check Warren Ellis' wikipedia page:
Warren Ellis Born February 16, 1968
Essex, EnglandOccupation writer Nationality British Genres science fiction, superhero Literary movement Extropianism, Transhumanism Notable work(s) Transmetropolitan
Planetary
The Authority
Nextwave
Global FrequencyNotable award(s) Eagle Award
Monday, May 12, 2008
powerset video
We're in deep now -- Powerset furthers the assumption that Wikipedia is factual.
Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
be here at ref desk
Be here, be here now, yo?
A lower noise-to-signal ratio, please.
Light less mediated.
Info seekers need our presence.
Myanmar Cyclone Resources
STAR-TIDES working group for Myanmar:
http://star-tides.net/myanmar
Inundation maps on Burmese coast, Dartmouth:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~floods/images/2008052Burma.jpg
Addictomatic feeds for Myanmar:
http://addictomatic.com/topic/Myanmar
ICRC, Myanmar, [donations link].
http://star-tides.net/myanmar
Inundation maps on Burmese coast, Dartmouth:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~floods/images/2008052Burma.jpg
Addictomatic feeds for Myanmar:
http://addictomatic.com/topic/Myanmar
ICRC, Myanmar, [donations link].
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Free Guptastan
You are lucky that he is on your side.
It only recently occurred to me that people don’t realize that I’m absolutely serious about starting a new nation state within three or four years if conditions are historically right.
library moment: grieg
This wonderful patron (an exuberant and adventurous Russian grandmother) who I get to help every two or three weeks rushes into my office, says, "Can you hep me?"
I say I can, and she has me pull up the Wikipedia page on Edvard Grieg, and play the .ogg there of the first movement of the piano concerto so that it will jog her memory. She thanks me profusely ("Thank you, thank you," she shakes her finger at me, "I like you so much!"), apologizes for her strong perfume, and rushes off to go to sing the piece in a performance. She said she'd been so nervous that she'd forgotten the music during her commute.
That's a good reminder for me: to keep my door more open more often.
And a good reminder that sometimes granny knows just where to go for her collaborative media music archive resources without any input from you, brother.
Granny can surprise you.
I say I can, and she has me pull up the Wikipedia page on Edvard Grieg, and play the .ogg there of the first movement of the piano concerto so that it will jog her memory. She thanks me profusely ("Thank you, thank you," she shakes her finger at me, "I like you so much!"), apologizes for her strong perfume, and rushes off to go to sing the piece in a performance. She said she'd been so nervous that she'd forgotten the music during her commute.
That's a good reminder for me: to keep my door more open more often.
And a good reminder that sometimes granny knows just where to go for her collaborative media music archive resources without any input from you, brother.
Granny can surprise you.
Albert Hofmann gone now
Albert Hofmann, LSD inventor, RIP
Albert Hofmann, who first synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), has passed away. He was 102 years-old."I believe that if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonderchild." -- Albert Hofmann (1906-2008)
Link to Wikipedia article
=edit:=
Wasn't it Grace Slick who said she used to believe that if everybody dropped out and read a bunch of books the world would be a perfect place? But then we grow up and see that drugs do nothing but magnify our own psychosis (maybe peppering it sometimes with hints and glimmers of something magnificently transcendental), and that no problem is ever going to be solved, in this world or in the next, by the magnification of our own psyches. We get weary of drugs, weary of our own psycho-drama, and ready for reality (a reality more real than the daily-babble monkey-mind of our 'headache gray', fluorescent lit chattersphere)?
But that's not to disparage Mr. Hofmann -- he was a brave man, I think.
books are weapons in the war of ideas
Doesn't this mean that "books" as an idea are the right idea and that book-ism is situated somewhere opposite State-ism (or maybe particular species of facism or national socialism)? That would imply that State-isms of any kind are the idea-things that book-ism undermines and subverts; and this would (or could) potentially threaten even American-ism, or Liberal-ism, or any other idea-thing, or idea-culture-thing.
The idea that we will stand up for the idea that "we may disagree with your idea but we will die to protect your right to express it" (or Z) is dangerous to any kind of idea-culture-thing except for the idea-culture-thing that defends (or identifies itself as or with?) Z.
This is all in the realm of abstraction and ideal, of course -- making sense of the face of an idea-culture-thing that has been presented by its self through wartime propaganda.
What's missing here?
information decay
like when you let your records go to seed, and the OPAC gets cumbersome; the interface is brittle and bright. A broken bureau-asthetique, a little red and yellow grave for books and mags and The Journal of Noospheric Phenomena & Neuro-Christology. A $15,000 so-what. Shelves sagging, homebrewed references crookedly photocopied onto acidic 2lb LaserBrite, and glum librarians staring lustily off toward retirement. Bad records getting worse. Truncation and limiters splintering into arbitrary chaos, returning a search for "teen suicide" with nothing but Carl Yanni's The Architecture of Madness, claiming it's shelved somewhere between the book on medieval Italian crown-mold milling and that dusty box of realia that some bigwig on 'the board' must've once given to some middle manager as a thank-you, back before The Cosby Show wowed us all on Thursday nights.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
more information in fewer hands
Weekly News Digest from Info Today reports on the Thomson happenings:
On April 17, The Thomson Corp. announced that it had completed its acquisition of Reuters Group, PLC, forming Thomson Reuters, a provider of "intelligent information" for businesses and professionals in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare, and media markets. Thomson Reuters has more than 50,000 employees with operations in 93 countries on six continents and 2007 pro forma revenues of approximately $12.4 billion.
Update: it shouldn't go unnoticed that Thomson Reuters had to go through tough federal anti-trust scrutiny to make the merge. Librarians have a duty to develop collections of information from diverse sources... a few more major consolidations like this & there won't be any diversity of database sources to speak of. Buy small press (and build homebrew) while you still can. I'm not knocking the value of what Thomson Reuters has to deliver, but I don't like being forced into smaller and smaller cattle chutes to get at what I need.
--
Reading: Not Loompanics Press anymore. Don't forget the value of niche info.
Listening: "Nutbush City Limits"
gale, readspeaker
At Library Journal, Michael Rogers reports that Gale's going to add text-to-audio software into 6 of its databases (including Opposing Viewpoints!)Hope the voices aren't super canned and tinny sounding like other such audio/text programs are, but even if they are robotic I'll be very happy to have this tool handy. Yessir.
ok, so i'm a copycat
I'm a copycat too.
But man, I love me some playlist.com... been waiting for a really good .mp3 search engine for a while now. Love it maybe just as much as I do Pandora...
Enjoy while you can, before the RIAA or the CIA or Hillary Clinton or some other finger shaker takes it all away.
(You know, we ought to shake our fingers too every once in a while...)
But man, I love me some playlist.com... been waiting for a really good .mp3 search engine for a while now. Love it maybe just as much as I do Pandora...
Enjoy while you can, before the RIAA or the CIA or Hillary Clinton or some other finger shaker takes it all away.
(You know, we ought to shake our fingers too every once in a while...)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
tags, cois, library thing
communities of interest, where descriptors have to be specific, exact, unambiguous...
tags are lazy, sloppy, hasty. taxonomies are cumbersome (cheap shot), unintuitive... but also unambiguous.
how to make tags for c.o.i.s unambiguous, precise? reference to the schema needed to define terms. building better schema, yes, but also building better ontological tools, meta-schematic maps that define where the references are, what they refer to (and when), and the context necessary to decide on one over another.
much more to learn.
how can library thing help us to make one instance of "rock" mean stone, and another instance mean the music? are tags a black hole? and they, don't they, still ultimately depend on the occasional human pruning, picking the "fucks" and "goddamns" from the record page once LT is integrated into your ILS?
we need better tagging tools.
this whole thing -- it has to be a 'how can we make this work better for us and our patrons' thing rather than a 'ooooh, i du-nnnnnnnnnnoooooo, should we or shouldn't we even dooooooo this' thing.
yes,
yes,
and hell yes. we need to do this. but smartly.
tags are lazy, sloppy, hasty. taxonomies are cumbersome (cheap shot), unintuitive... but also unambiguous.
how to make tags for c.o.i.s unambiguous, precise? reference to the schema needed to define terms. building better schema, yes, but also building better ontological tools, meta-schematic maps that define where the references are, what they refer to (and when), and the context necessary to decide on one over another.
much more to learn.
how can library thing help us to make one instance of "rock" mean stone, and another instance mean the music? are tags a black hole? and they, don't they, still ultimately depend on the occasional human pruning, picking the "fucks" and "goddamns" from the record page once LT is integrated into your ILS?
we need better tagging tools.
this whole thing -- it has to be a 'how can we make this work better for us and our patrons' thing rather than a 'ooooh, i du-nnnnnnnnnnoooooo, should we or shouldn't we even dooooooo this' thing.
yes,
yes,
and hell yes. we need to do this. but smartly.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday's TLA
Caught a couple good sessions in the TLA Net Fair area -- exhibitions hall.
Todd Humble of North Richland Hills talked about implementing RFIDs in the collection -- really good talk, really practical, pragmatic info. He raised the issue of read/writable tags and data swiping, which is a real worry if you go for the 'smart' library cards for your patrons (his system was wise enough not to). This guy's the real deal, right down to grinding down the surfaces of discs in order to make sure that 100% -- yes, really -- of the collection was tagged. From scraping and photocopying, creating faux covers, to foiling foil, Todd knows his stuff.
Second session was on Second Life. Ms. Lorin Fisher gave a good introductory talk on Second Life, Second Life Library (infoisland, or info archipelago now?), and the particulars of doing reference service in SL. I asked her abt making use of SL in the here/now of my community's daily, RL reference needs. I remain unconvinced that SL librarianship has much at all to do with RL service and getting the information to the people, despite the excellent points she raised about meeting professors teaching in SL on their own pedagogical turf. (I know of one prof teaching an anthropology course in SL at my college, but there are probably more doing it.) I just don't yet think SL serves the mass of us. I can't help but see it as a "wow, ain't this cool!" tool for the info-elite who have the luxury of time to romp around being a dinosaur-fairy-goth-robot in wonderland. But. That's not to say SL lacks potential, and I think Ms. Fisher did a good job in asking us to think about what that potential could be.
Otherwise, played some wii nintendo bowling (my first wii experience ever) at the HighSmith booth. They told me pretty things about library furniture and gave me a plush lizard. Actually, their tables look like the best for our hypothetical (hopefully this summer!) game night needs, unless we rig something up homebrew by trying to laminate our own table tops.
Another good day at TLA, despite being spammed to shop at the scooter store by some guy in the hall (pushed a card out right in front of me whilst I was walking. I was like 'what's it for', he was like 'the scooter expo', i was like 'not interested', kept walking. the expectation that people will take what you put in front of their faces just because you have the nerve to stick it in front of them is insulting -- and now that feller knows it don't work on us all), and slight hassling about my lacking badge when I first came in (well mister, you better go back to your truck to get it)... fair enough.
(aside, the pic of Ms. Yarrow has a story, and it has to do w/ Meg Cabot a little bit... no time now tho).
**edit: to say, that pic ain't from Transmet! my goof -- it's Katchoo, right?**
Todd Humble of North Richland Hills talked about implementing RFIDs in the collection -- really good talk, really practical, pragmatic info. He raised the issue of read/writable tags and data swiping, which is a real worry if you go for the 'smart' library cards for your patrons (his system was wise enough not to). This guy's the real deal, right down to grinding down the surfaces of discs in order to make sure that 100% -- yes, really -- of the collection was tagged. From scraping and photocopying, creating faux covers, to foiling foil, Todd knows his stuff.
Second session was on Second Life. Ms. Lorin Fisher gave a good introductory talk on Second Life, Second Life Library (infoisland, or info archipelago now?), and the particulars of doing reference service in SL. I asked her abt making use of SL in the here/now of my community's daily, RL reference needs. I remain unconvinced that SL librarianship has much at all to do with RL service and getting the information to the people, despite the excellent points she raised about meeting professors teaching in SL on their own pedagogical turf. (I know of one prof teaching an anthropology course in SL at my college, but there are probably more doing it.) I just don't yet think SL serves the mass of us. I can't help but see it as a "wow, ain't this cool!" tool for the info-elite who have the luxury of time to romp around being a dinosaur-fairy-goth-robot in wonderland. But. That's not to say SL lacks potential, and I think Ms. Fisher did a good job in asking us to think about what that potential could be.Otherwise, played some wii nintendo bowling (my first wii experience ever) at the HighSmith booth. They told me pretty things about library furniture and gave me a plush lizard. Actually, their tables look like the best for our hypothetical (hopefully this summer!) game night needs, unless we rig something up homebrew by trying to laminate our own table tops.
Another good day at TLA, despite being spammed to shop at the scooter store by some guy in the hall (pushed a card out right in front of me whilst I was walking. I was like 'what's it for', he was like 'the scooter expo', i was like 'not interested', kept walking. the expectation that people will take what you put in front of their faces just because you have the nerve to stick it in front of them is insulting -- and now that feller knows it don't work on us all), and slight hassling about my lacking badge when I first came in (well mister, you better go back to your truck to get it)... fair enough.
(aside, the pic of Ms. Yarrow has a story, and it has to do w/ Meg Cabot a little bit... no time now tho).
**edit: to say, that pic ain't from Transmet! my goof -- it's Katchoo, right?**
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
What happened to Cali?
If you were waiting to hear the GeekBrief.TV session at TLA today, Ms. Lewis explains what happened:
Could've happened to any of us!
When I arrived to setup for my speech, I found out that I was almost an hour late, and the majority of people that had been waiting patiently had moved on to other sessions.
I was devastated, and still am. I’m pedantic about time, and unless Neal makes me slow down, I’m early for everything. I can’t stand disappointing people, and it breaks my heart that I did today (They told me there were 50 librarians waiting for me). Since I like to be early, we were there walking around the whole time they were waiting.
There were a few people left when we got to the room, so instead of a formal presentation, we just sat down and talked informally about new media and podcasting.
This is the most embarrassing moment of my life, both personally and professionally. I want to publicly apologize to all the librarians who were in that room waiting, and to Todd Humble, the organizer.
UPDATE: I didn’t say why I was late. I put the time down wrong in my calendar, even after triple checking the time slot.
Could've happened to any of us!
ya, libraries might incubate talent
If they give a damn (like this High School librarian clearly does) and make the effort.
:)
:)
the day at TLA
What a good day to be at the TLA convention!
I got to meet some excellent Texan librarians, learned a lot, and got some ideas for programs. I'm really enthused abt gaming in libraries (after hearing Eli's talk on literacy skills learned through gaming), but I reckon on starting with table top programs -- chess, mancala, RPGs.
Learned a lot about LibraryThing and its uses in lib catalogs -- also its uses in small communities of interest... which brings up contextual tags, other issues.
Look forward to tomorrow.
edit: to say Barbara Johnson of Beford libraries and Ellie Collier of ACC made an awesome presentation. they lit the fire of libr.thing up under me.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
springshare libguides copy 2
Yeah, I got my teeth into this gummy junk now.
Of this corpus:
I find the following terms particularly problematic (in terms expressed previously):
schmoogle
sure
heck
stuff
The three consecutive exclamation points don't work to make me feel any, like, better. You can, heck, call me, like, totally stiff if you wanna! Talk to, like, the hand!
Of this corpus:
Google Schmoogle
Sure, your users can search Google and your online databases to find information. But you, the librarian, are the key to successful research. Heck, nobody knows research better! With LibGuides you help patrons find stuff they need and show them information they didn't even know existed! Now, patrons have best of both worlds! In addition, with LibGuides patrons can chat with you and ask questions in real time, via chat widgets like meebo, or by using instant messenger apps.
I find the following terms particularly problematic (in terms expressed previously):
schmoogle
sure
heck
stuff
The three consecutive exclamation points don't work to make me feel any, like, better. You can, heck, call me, like, totally stiff if you wanna! Talk to, like, the hand!
springshare libguides copy
What exactly the hell does this mean, once parsed past the hip and informal tone?
That librarians are there to help them and that Springshare wants to get paid to help librarians help patrons? Or what?
Should I not feel annoyed to be talked to in a hip and informal way? Is it because I'm part, generationally and attitudinally, of the 2.0 thing that it's okay to talk to me about selling your product in the same tone that you might use to leave a comment on my Facebook wall?
Google Schmoogle
Sure, your users can search Google and your online databases to find information. But you, the librarian, are the key to successful research. Heck, nobody knows research better! With LibGuides you help patrons find stuff they need and show them information they didn't even know existed! Now, patrons have best of both worlds! In addition, with LibGuides patrons can chat with you and ask questions in real time, via chat widgets like meebo, or by using instant messenger apps.
That librarians are there to help them and that Springshare wants to get paid to help librarians help patrons? Or what?
Should I not feel annoyed to be talked to in a hip and informal way? Is it because I'm part, generationally and attitudinally, of the 2.0 thing that it's okay to talk to me about selling your product in the same tone that you might use to leave a comment on my Facebook wall?
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
reference sweetness
is finding the exact set of statistics you need in Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center very quickly rather than digging through Lexis-Nexis tables for an hour, and teaching a patron how to do it for himself. Ah yes, so sweet it needs a bitter shot to chase.
Now that's what I call librarianship.
Now that's what I call librarianship.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
ABCs by Marion Bataille
edit: The second video, just above, was put in to demo finding and embedding science vids during a library instruction class. Carry on.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sir Arthur has passed on
 Sir Arthur C Clarke was famous for his science fiction writing |
He came to fame when his story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was made into a film by director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.
Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.
Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, become a full-time writer in the 1940s.
A farmer's son
Sir Arthur's vivid - and detailed - descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.
His writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction - a genre often accused of veering towards the fantastical - a human and practical face.
A farmer's son, he was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.
Monday, March 10, 2008
spencer: right again
You need to be reading What You Already Know. Spencer is right on, here, right down to the gardening.
"Let the ISD pay for it"?!?!
I am rotfl. Really am.
---
Reading: Laurence Freeman. Quenches about like well water.
Listening: Frank Zappa (Is that a real poncho, I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?)
"Let the ISD pay for it"?!?!
I am rotfl. Really am.
---
Reading: Laurence Freeman. Quenches about like well water.
Listening: Frank Zappa (Is that a real poncho, I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?)
the myspace shrug
state of the library
May 15, 2007Librarians I’ve talked with haven’t generally been pleased with ALA’s 07 State of America’s Libraries. I hear grumbling. I hear mumbling that the report is self-serving. I hear much cynical dissatisfaction that the ALA is out of touch, glancing rosily around at a future they don’t much get. Maybe that’s not fair. I mean, after all, they presumably haven’t cooked the books to get to these statistics.
Angel makes a good point:
And we still have our work cut out for us in terms of educating people about social networks. That we have a bunch of hysteria mongers trying to legislate something they don’t understand is simply disgraceful.
Truly any new big numbers of library visitors are mostly visitors to library computer labs, no? What do folks overwhelmingly do on the computers? Visit social networks, yes. The report says that public library connection speeds don’t live up to user “needs”. Ha. Haha.
Folks, we’re standing around shrugging at each other over web2.0, yet to really imagine and implement good information services that use social networking, folksonomy, or user-generated content to excellent effect. We’re mostly trying to convince our administrative overlords that we should at least have this discussion, to at leat talk about the potential benefits and pitfalls of making ourselves availabe on, like, Facebook.
And while we stand shrugging, web3.0, a more or less intelligent “semantic” web, is slowly growing its bones. What will it take to make real technological (and therefore cultural) leaders out of librarians? Maybe it’s a lost cause. We fold to “hysteria mongers” who are even more short sighted than we are.
I’m not feeling very hopeful, either, at the moment. And I am beginning to think that the real information service action is corporate. We didn’t build it, they didn’t come. Yahoo! built it. Google built it. Ask built it. MySpace built it. Our patrons don’t come to us, they just come for MySpace.
We’ve dropped the ball.
2 comments to “state of the library”
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
omg, scratch
Scratch!
OLPC type thing, like Squeak?
Easy to use.
Fun to use.
Uses for teaching info literacy?
Critical thinking?
Social networking aspects.
Fun to use.
Sharing tips, sharing knowledge, groups learning together (yes, social networking!)...
I like.
[found via Spencer]
OLPC type thing, like Squeak?
Easy to use.
Fun to use.
Uses for teaching info literacy?
Critical thinking?
Social networking aspects.
Fun to use.
Sharing tips, sharing knowledge, groups learning together (yes, social networking!)...
I like.
[found via Spencer]
French comics culture
If you look further you will see that the BD section - pronounced Bay-Day - is in fact sub-divided into several categories.
There will be classics - Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke, the cowboy who shoots faster than his shadow - plus many that never made it out of Franco-Belgium, like Rahan - l'enfant des ages farouches or child of the age of savagery - about a Tarzan-like figure from prehistoric times.
There will be the latest best-sellers. Top of the book lists this month - beating Harry Potter and the latest on President Nicolas Sarkozy's love life - has been the last in a long-running adventure series called Thirteen about a man trying to rediscover his identity after losing his memory.
There will be the American comics section, the Japanese Manga section - this one getting bigger and bigger because they are getting more and more popular.
There will also be the adult section, with works of quite astonishing vividness.
And then, pride of place, the section for what the French call "les Auteurs".
Here, the most highly regarded authors are catalogued by name.
This is the art-house end of the market.
An album in this section may sell only a few hundred copies - compared to half a million for the latest hit - but the true connoisseurs will know all about it.
Here, experimentation and the avant-garde allow the Bay-Day fan to see him or herself as more than just a consumer, rather as a cultured devotee of a thriving art form.
Thanks, Heavy D.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
nighty, night for WikiLeaks
If you bothered to get excited about the implications of WikiLeaks, you can stop.It's killed.
Unless:
SUPPORT OUR FIRST AMENDMENT CASE TO APPEAL BUSH APPOINTEE JUSTICE WHITE'S ORDER TO CENSOR WIKILEAKS.ORG!
Back our defense fund by emailing supporters@sunshinepress.org with your pledge!
george dyson's mad infoskillz
Anthropotek has this video [link] of George Dyson at TED. I'm really dumbstruck by the man's infoskillz... he found so much on Project Orion that NASA ends up buying thousands of pages from him. Now that's a helluva historian. NASA, he says, continues funding a small contingent to work on this emergency evacuation of the planet contingency... Amazing.
Oh, here's his book on the subject [link].
{also: Long Now lectures}
Oh, here's his book on the subject [link].
{also: Long Now lectures}
Monday, February 18, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
lecturing the choir
Do folks (besides librarians) really want to sit around in seat-spots pretending to be good while some expert whinges on and on about the terrible state of gender inequity in virtual economies? Or what? When folks can fly, wouldn't they rather be flying and maybe catch the lecture on their virtual headphones? Or what? I mean, is that what we really reckon our patrons want to do... when they could be flying?
institutional license?
Wonder if libraries could get some kind of a 4 or 5 device unlimited access variation agreement going? Use the keitai to push and pull info with patrons' keitai. Kaywa tag bookclub selections to discussion forums, a webliography... build and push mobile catalog search widgets... that kind of thing.
second skin
Unfair, maybe, to bring it up based only on two minutes of trailer for the film... but what about ethnicity?
Looks good. Hope to see it.
Looks good. Hope to see it.
fbi to create biometric database w/ tattoo mapping
...scar imaging, retinal and fingerprint scans, all of it [link].
Bioinformatic dominance in the name of security.
[via BoingBoing]
"Papers please! Paperless persons are illegals. Now you wear your papers. Your tattoos are taken under immanent domain as intellectual property of the state!"
Imagine librarians freelancing, nights, as pattern snoopers in a database of body smells.
Bioinformatic dominance in the name of security.
[via BoingBoing]
"Papers please! Paperless persons are illegals. Now you wear your papers. Your tattoos are taken under immanent domain as intellectual property of the state!"
Imagine librarians freelancing, nights, as pattern snoopers in a database of body smells.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
info tools at AFCEA
Just noting the 'products, services, and solutions' for battlefield and support at AFCAE West this year includes:
• Battle Damage Assessment
• Biotechnology
• Bandwidth Compression and Synchronization
• Collaboration & Collaborative Tools
• Combat ID Perimeter Security
• Common Operating Picture (COP)
• Data Architecture
• Data Encryption
• Data Manipulation and Analytical Tools
• Data Mining & Warehousing
• E-Commerce & E-Business
• Electronic Warfare Equipment
• Electronically Enhanced Education
• Enterprise Architecture
• Global Positioning Systems
• Information and Intelligence Fusion
• Information Operations, Assurance and Security
• Interoperability – Joint and Coalition
• Knowledge Enabled Logistics
• Knowledge Management & Leadership Decision Making
• Nanotechnology
• Network Centric Warfare
• Shared Intel Databases at Multiple Security Levels
• Simulations & Modeling
• Streaming Video
• Visualization Technologies
• Voice over IP
• VTC – C2 System
• Wireless Solutions, Networking and Security
and several other info-heavy tool suites...
Of course, STAR-TIDES is there representing. Much respeck.
• Battle Damage Assessment
• Biotechnology
• Bandwidth Compression and Synchronization
• Collaboration & Collaborative Tools
• Combat ID Perimeter Security
• Common Operating Picture (COP)
• Data Architecture
• Data Encryption
• Data Manipulation and Analytical Tools
• Data Mining & Warehousing
• E-Commerce & E-Business
• Electronic Warfare Equipment
• Electronically Enhanced Education
• Enterprise Architecture
• Global Positioning Systems
• Information and Intelligence Fusion
• Information Operations, Assurance and Security
• Interoperability – Joint and Coalition
• Knowledge Enabled Logistics
• Knowledge Management & Leadership Decision Making
• Nanotechnology
• Network Centric Warfare
• Shared Intel Databases at Multiple Security Levels
• Simulations & Modeling
• Streaming Video
• Visualization Technologies
• Voice over IP
• VTC – C2 System
• Wireless Solutions, Networking and Security
and several other info-heavy tool suites...
Of course, STAR-TIDES is there representing. Much respeck.
Friday, January 25, 2008
info layout
Thinking about info architecture, but down real basic-like.
Take the page. Most folks on the Earth can deal with a page -- they've got some kind of cultural place for the page, even if not for print or for books. We can sort a page out -- right-to-left, left-to-right, up or downwise, lots of us have context for markings on a page.
Web browsers are new, computers are new, and as common as they seem to us in the bizzness, plenty of folks yet have zero context for making sense of the computer. The mouse? Keyboards, more common. Web browsers? Web pages?
Folks'll be thinking "Where is this page, like? On web-what?" Does it go forward-back, back-forward, front-to-back? Which way am I moving through it? How do I get to where I began, and how do I know where to go next?
Old territory for some of you. Usability stuff back to Nielsen. Peter Morville and info-structures.
But let's look at this anthropologically, culturally. How do grammars affect layouts? How do kinship models affect category trees?
Take the page. Most folks on the Earth can deal with a page -- they've got some kind of cultural place for the page, even if not for print or for books. We can sort a page out -- right-to-left, left-to-right, up or downwise, lots of us have context for markings on a page.
Web browsers are new, computers are new, and as common as they seem to us in the bizzness, plenty of folks yet have zero context for making sense of the computer. The mouse? Keyboards, more common. Web browsers? Web pages?
Folks'll be thinking "Where is this page, like? On web-what?" Does it go forward-back, back-forward, front-to-back? Which way am I moving through it? How do I get to where I began, and how do I know where to go next?
Old territory for some of you. Usability stuff back to Nielsen. Peter Morville and info-structures.
But let's look at this anthropologically, culturally. How do grammars affect layouts? How do kinship models affect category trees?
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First, thanks for the link. To be honest, by the time I posted about, I figured it would slip unseen. Anyhow, you hit it well. We need to get our overlords in the library world to at least start having the discussions. The patrons are already at the next level (well, for the most part. I don’t buy every single patron has gone 2.0 either). I would like to think that we can get librarians to that point you mention of being leaders. Unfortunately, I look around, and I hate to say this, but it may take some people just getting weeded out. I probably should quit while I am ahead (I am in a setting where certain “leaders” can do best by simply retiring and getting out of our way). It’s hard to be hopeful, but we should at least try. Best, and keep on blogging.
Hey, I feel ya.
If librianship as a profession doesn’t soon have a signficant attitudinal shift, it’s gonna break like an old lady’s hip.