Simple Odyl

More book art

2011-06-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

These paintings are some of the more interesting forms of book art I've seen in a while. I especially like this one:

Did Google create an impetus for a National Digital Public Library?

2011-05-10T10:45:00.001-07:00

I never weighed in after Judge Chin rejected the Google Book settlement. When Google began this project, I was enthusiastically on board. However, as time passed and I researched more opinions, I began to think differently. Who is Google to preserve our heritage? I think the rejection of the settlement was the proper decision although I still think it has a valid claim for fair use. This fair use claim is a good thing for libraries because it means that they have an opportunity to take control of the situation and create their own version of access and preservation.

Over the past couple of years there is a growing impetus to create a national digital library. As content continues to be born digital and become digital, the need for public control and access is emergently imperative. In fact, we shouldn't even be discussing it; it should have happened already. Compared to other nations, we are sorely behind.

My hope is that Google was the catalyst that drove copyright reform and an outlet for our textual heritage in a national digital library. My hopes were echoed today in a webinar titled What Comes After the Google Book Settlement?, in which the panelists discussed the future of digital press and copyright. Google brought the problems of copyright as it currently stands to national attention. Not much has happened yet, but it is inevitable that change is afoot.

National Digital Library resources:
LibraryCity
Digital Public Library of America
TeleRead
The Voices of Librarians and the DPLA

Eat your library, it's good for you

2011-04-05T20:28:00.001-07:00

Howard Stern may be the king of all media, but I think I found the contender for the librarian of all media. First a Newsweek article and now TV. Hot damn!

Great job, Eva!

Book Sculptures and Book Buildings

2011-03-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is a building made of books. Click here for more book art photos.

1994 asks what "internet" is

2011-01-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

I saw this clip on Stephen's Lighthouse and got a kick out of it. The 1994 Today Show crew try to explain what "internet" is. They also invite you to visit a show story "internet address" of violence@nbc.ge.com.

What took me so long?!? Access is the difference

2010-12-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

I know I am completely late to the game in owning an ipod (I got my first this fall - a now-apparently-too-small-16-gig classic). Most of it is filled with music, but I hardly ever listen to it. I have discovered the power of the exceptional podcast.

Case in point: This American Life: #371 Scenes from a Mall

I have never (in my admittedly short-lived listening experience) been disappointed with This American Life. No matter what they decide to talk about, it will be interesting.

This American Life has been around since 1995. Of course I had heard of it and probably listened to an episode or two, but never has this show been so accessible to me. This is all the difference in the world.

I love Legos!

2010-11-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

There are lots of buildings and replica buildings made of Legos, but this one of my former employer, Detroit Public Library, is my favorite.

Who is watching what you do online?

2010-09-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

The deeper we get into the web and all of its technology accoutrements, the deeper the web gets into us. Or, more specifically, the deeper marketing companies get into us. It may not be big brother, but there are plenty of others out there watching what we do online.

The Wall Street Journal has been analyzing the software and companies that track us online. Last month, I listened to a conversation between Fresh Air's Dave Davies and WSJ's Julia Angwin as they discuss consumer surveillance. It was quite interesting. Have a listen here.

Also, visit The Wall Street Journal's What They Know website to find out more about the project and what the reporters have found. Surprising to me was the amount of tracking software on one of my favorite sites, dictionary.com. Also, there's a pretty high, though unsurprising, creepiness factor in the amount of tracking software on websites designed for children. Some things, regardless of format, never change.

Plagiarism Video from Norway's University of Bergen

2010-09-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Apart from being truly entertaining, I really have to commend the high production level of this little film. Enjoy.

Thanks to Copy, Shake, and Paste for posting this.

Old Spice, New Spice and Libraries

2010-07-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

These two videos have been getting a lot of coverage in library blogs lately. Both are pretty snazzy, but I personally prefer New Spice for it's witty commentary and video editing. Fun stuff.

How Does Google Work?

2010-07-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

PPCBlog has a heady "infographic" explaining how your google search results get to you.

Infographic by PPC Blog

Yes, I love spontaneous dancing and improv!

2010-05-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Just for fun.

Organization: The Future of the Web

2010-05-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Jude posted a fascinating video a few days ago titled Web 3.0. It's all about the semantic web, and if you're curious what that means I highly recommend you take the 15 minutes to watch this. This may be part of the future of library science.

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

Life beyond Dewey

2010-04-16T10:11:00.001-07:00

Originally, I was going to discuss an article from io9.com titled, 5 Ways The Google Book Settlement Will Change The Future of Reading. But frankly, I'm tired of thinking about what the future of reading will look like. I recommend reading the article, though.

Then I saw this post about Dewey Decimal Classification from Infomancy which is close to my heart and frustrations. If I had my druthers, we'd all drop dewey as a form of shelf arrangement. There is no good reason sewing books should be 50 shelves away from knitting. The inventive and intelligent people of the library world can come up with something more meaningful. It's embarassing to explain dewey to library patrons and be forced to admit that we have this system that just plain does not make a whole lot of sense today.

Some forward-thinking libraries have done away with or hybridized dewey, and I just hope we all jump on the bandwagon sooner than later. Not to do so is selling ourselves and - more importantly - our patrons short. We can do better.

Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don’t

In the search for better browsability, librarians are putting Dewey in a different class

The end of publishing?

2010-03-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

Check out this video from DK's YouTube channel. Although it's titled The Future of Publishing, it more about the future of marketing books. It's still fairly clever, though.

Google Book Search Fairness Hearing

2010-02-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Well, it's begun. Judge Chin plans to take his time so we might not know anything concrete for a while.

For comprehensive coverage, check out The Laboratorium blog from Professor James Grimmelmann from the New York Law School.

(thanks ResourceShelf)

Google Book Search settlement or settling for less?

2010-01-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I thought too hard about the Google Book Search settlement. I've read a few articles as they've come out, but I've been holding off on an opinion one way or the other.

At first, I thought the settlement was a great idea as a work-around. But the more I think about it, the more disconcerted I feel. We shouldn't be working around the law; the law should be responsive to the needs of the public. If our needs haven't changed but the law no longer corresponds to our needs, then the law must change.

To have an informed citizenry, which is the heart of democracy, we need education. Believe or not, that's why we have libraries in the first place. We're at a crux in time where our current terminology doesn't hold up to our current technology. It's not people or their needs that have changed. Methods of access and modes of communication - yes, but we still need the same things from a dynamic environment.

So, after I read Erick Schonfeld 's article on the Tech Crunch blog I was enthusiastically nodding my head up and down, happy to read something that made sense to me. The article is an analysis of Lawrence Lessig's much longer essay in The New Republic. It brings to the fore even more complications of the current copyright situation that I hadn't thought of before, and Lessig has some excellent points.

My fear is that if we don't do something about copyright soon, we will have let companies and corporate entities decide for us what we have access to and how we have access to it. For now, we can still go to the local library and obtain information in book form, but what happens in the future when more is born digital and never had a print counterpart? We need to figure this out before it's no longer up for debate and the wrong precedent has been set. I have yet to completely decide if the settlement is beneficial, but more and more it's feeling like a cop-out. We should be asking and answering the bigger questions, not band-aiding a long-standing and accelerating issue.

Also, for a short breakdown of the current status of the settlement, check out Jennifer Howard's post in Wired Campus, The Chronicle of Higher Education blog.

What's changed in the past 10 years?

2009-12-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

I know the world has changed a great deal in the past 10 years, but to see as numbers on paper brings a whole new perspective.

Check out Forbes' The Decade in Data to see just how largely the numbers have jumped.

A Day in the Internet

2009-12-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

This has been floating around on a few blogs lately. Interesting stuff.

'A Glorious Dawn'

2009-12-14T19:27:00.001-08:00

This video is too cool on so many levels. Nerds rock on!

Phish Festival 8 - Photomation

2009-11-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

Most comfortable festival experience EVER. We were camped very close to the often cleaned johns, had plenty of water at convenient refilling stations, were a short walk to the concert field, and most refreshing of all, SHOWERS! It was awesome. Perfect venue. I can't wait to do it again.

For a taste of the experience, check out Michael Marantz's animation of Festival 8. It is created using still shots and music from the festival.

Phish - Festival 8 (long cut) from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Links between information and emotion (and reference service)

2009-11-18T17:27:00.001-08:00

Here is an interesting bit of information that made me think of a book I once read.

The bit:
More proof that emotion is a powerful force in making sense of information

The book:
Information and Emotion
The Emergent Affective Paradigm in Information Behavior Research and Theory
My review:
http://readingundeterred.blogspot.com/2008/04/information-and-emotion-emergent.html

As someone who provides information for a living, I have seen clearly how emotion can make or break someone. Time and again, I have witnessed a pinched-faced, nervous ball of a human being asking for information and being disappointed, perplexed and annoyed at the result. I have also seen calm and open-minded people asking for the very same information and being thankful, placated and intrigued by the result. I learned early in the profession that a librarian should not take on the negative emotions of their customers, but this is easier said than done. All too clearly I recall missing key pieces of information because I was working with a high-anxiety, ultra-intense person. As soon as they left, the missing piece was right there under my nose. Over time I've learned to cool it down and hopefully cool them down. But let's face it, there are those that no matter what you offer, it is still not the answer they were looking/hoping for. And these souls, I'm sad to say, get sub-standard service. Not because I don't want to give them more, but because they either don't give me time to get it right or they won't hear what I'm saying.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Staff Day at the Library 2009

2009-10-22T14:38:00.001-07:00

This year for Staff Training and Development Day, we had a slew of speakers. The afternoon speakers focused on health. We had a guy from the shoe store tell us all about shoes, a guy from the outdoors store tell us about the plethora of outdoor places and activities in the Spokane area, and an eye doctor (I don't know what he talked about - I ended up in a side conversation about libraryland).

Usually, staff days tend to have motivational speakers that try to get employees pumped up about how great they are and what a wonderful place they work. Choose your attitude sort of stuff. I like motivational speakers. But this year I was happily surprised that our keynote speaker, Michael Porter, was librarian that could speak to us about libraries and more specifically about technology. He said a lot of interesting things, and while I wished he delved more deeply into the implications of using (or not using) technology and how the broader library community can get involved in the digital milieu, I did get a lot out of presentation.

Some of the highlights I came away with were:
Get a camera
Get with social networking, particularly facebook and flickr
Should we delve into the social networking arena, we will need to commit to updating it and creating a presence (be reliable, be responsive, be available)
Create, foster, nurture partnerships
If libraries do not stake their claim in the digital realm, it will move on without us - we will lose leverage; we have expertise in organizing and providing information, regardless of format

Here are my notes:

Our Future Library: Evolved, Even More Practical, Everywhere and Different
Michael Porter

Libraries = content + community

photos
- get cameras
- record memories – makes people feel good

What makes you love your library?
- people
- help
- books
- internet
- needs met

technology
- libraries are well-placed in community to take advantage of technology

fidelity
- defines what we are as institutions
- things that used to be sci-fi aren’t any more

library 101
- whole new set of basics
- find ways to engage the technology

-technology innovations are jumping exponentially every year – what does this do for libraries?

What do we adopt?
What’s part of our mission and vision?

- we are getting leapfrogged by for-profit companies (i.e. facebook)
- we need to jump onto their platform to compete with them
- we could get usurped if we’re not careful and adapt to the changes – find new ways to provide access to content
- we have a window of opportunity we need to plan for and we need to talk about

- what we do in libraries that doesn’t have to do with technology is not matching up with what we do that has to do with technology (we’re good at interacting with community but not good at the software side)

- digital content – libraries don’t have a platform to circulate
- we don’t own or have control over it

- articulate what you do well and say it

- take blinders off when we look at what we offer on the web
- what could we try?

Teaching today's youth - Video food for thought

2009-09-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

I ran across two videos recently about teaching today's teens. The first is an interview with some teens about their learning styles and preferred methods of learning. Quite fascinating. The second one is a music video about the need for today's kids to have teachers that are responsive to changing learning styles. Also, the song mentions things such as technological barriers to allowing children to reach their full potential in school.

When I was in school, I don't think I gave much thought to how my teachers were teaching me. Of course having a disinterested and lethargic teacher makes it glaringly clear what you don't want your teacher to be, but I didn't think much about how I wanted to be taught. I just accepted what was given to me and tried my best to succeed.

Today's teens seem to have more ideas about how they want to learn and what they expect from their teachers. I think this is a great thing as long as the teachers are willing to incorporate these kids' ideas into their curriculum. It takes a great teacher to let their ego go and accept input. Too often as a student I felt pitted against certain teachers; they seemed unable to take their students' perceptions and ideas seriously. Or some listened but couldn't do much to change the way things were, stifled as they were by time and administration constraints. It is interesting to see the face of education evolve. We'll see what happens next.

Emotionally intelligent signs

2009-08-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this short video presented the Pechu Kucha way (20 slides every 20 seconds). It came at a great time for me, seeing as I have spent the last few weeks wandering the nonfiction stacks trying to figure out where signs should go. Great information and food for thought in library land - the place of abounding signs. Which also gives me thought about whether all of the signs are truly necessary. I wonder how many signs there are that no one looks at through no fault of their own. Perhaps the signs aren't attractive or attention-getting or maybe there are too many signs together that they all blur into each other.

Just for fun, I did a quick ProQuest search to see what's new in signs and sign design. There is some good stuff out there. Check out
Berke, J. & Berke, C. (2009). Wayfinding: Part of the sign landscape. Sign Builder Illustrated, 23(167). Retrieved August 20, 2009, from ProQuest database.
(I haven't built a reference list citation in a while, glad to see I still got it.)