Group items tagged

Suck it Oracle.

A somewhat lighthearted response to all the excitement about the "discovery" of the Leale report, a report made to the Surgeon General by the first doctor to treat Abraham Lincoln after he was shot at Ford's Theater.   It's very interesting that, even though it was in the collection, where it should be, no one thought to use it in research until now.  

Time for everyone to feel really old.....

Beloit college releases an annual "mindset" list showing how incoming college freshmen see the world and the type of technology and cultural paradigms they consider normal. This year I found it interesting that almost a quarter have suffered some hearing loss, I presume from overuse of iPods and MP3 players. They also haven't seen a need for a bound set of encyclopedias, were born into the world of the Internet, and aren't familiar with camera film or video tape.

What? *she says both because she doesn't feel old and because she has lost hearing due to iPod over use*

An article from 1992 about the of books to be replaced by the then-new technology of hypertext. I find it an interesting contrast that back then the change was a new method of reading and access, while today's eBooks are more typically a print book repackaged for an electronic device.

This article is notable for how the New York Public Library is dealing with changes in technology and readership with the Central Library Plan, which is generating controversy. In steps similar to what other libraries have done a good portion of the books will be stored at an off-site facility, while older buildings will be sold and services centered on the main library. Interestingly, the off-site storage will also be used to allow New York City schools to order books directly from it.

The rack for the supercomputer has been built using Lego under the guidance of Professor Cox's son James Cox (aged 6).  In a press release Professor Cox said, "As soon as we were able to source sufficient Raspberry Pi computers we wanted to see if it was possible to link them together into a supercomputer." 

In this well-researched and provocative article, the author argues that a "philosophy" of librarianship is needed that is based on "praxis, not practice."  She argues that rather than explaining our value to the public, librarians should explain their philosophy-- "why we do what we do"-- as that will better help librarians adapt to changes in procedure ("practice") that come with changes in technology. Frustratingly, the author never prescribes an actual philosophy of librarianship for her own part, choosing instead to review the work done by others and recap the current philosophy debate in the field.

That's really cool! I wonder if he would work for MOBIUS? Ha ha!

Paul Otlet was a Belgian inventor who had several visionary ideas, such as a "World City" which would be a gathering of all the leading institutions of the world that would radiate knowledge and the Universal Decimal Classification scheme which is still used in some libraries. He also had a concept in 1934 for a radiated library that was in some ways a precursor to the Internet. It was limited by the technology he knew at the time, and consisted of a center where users would call in to ask for research and information to be displayed, which would then be displayed on a television screen. Aside from the need to call in some of his concepts are similar to early community access cable television.

"The makers of the POD Espresso Book Machine currently installed in fewer than a hundred bookstores nationwide, have announced new partnerships with Eastman Kodak and ReaderLink Distribution Services. Under the arrangement, the company's POD technology will be made available to retailers who have Kodak Picture Kiosks, currently installed in 105,000 locations according to Publishers Weekly, including drugstores and supermarkets. "

A preview of an upcoming publication it doesn't necessarily appear to cover any new ground but does describe the stages in how a disruptive technology that changes an industry is perceived and takes effect.

An interesting project that intends to combine Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) with Art to make STEAM and thus make these programs accessible to more students. While it has practical use at the pre-school and elementary level I can't see much use it would be for higher levels of education.

I posted something about this a couple weeks ago and then found this. Very interesting. We'll see how it plays out, but feels very 1984.

A look at the big e-book debate between libraries and publishers.

Harvard librarians learned that lesson when they set up Twitter feeds broadcasting titles of books being checked out from campus libraries. It seemed harmless enough-a typical tweet read, "Reconstructing American Law by Bruce A. Ackerman," with a link to the book's library catalog entry-but the social-media experiment turned out to be more provocative than library staffers imagined.

This teen space was too cool not to share! They have a green screen and a recording space!

Great way to combat voter ID laws.

Kind of like a Facebook poke for education-except nudging sounds useful and not annoying.

Stephen Duncombe, a professor at New York University, has created a free, online version of Thomas More's Utopia that anyone can browse and annotate. The project is called Open Utopia (http://theopenutopia.org/).

Wayne Bivens-Tatum at the Library Journal offers a general criticism at how current copyright law is designed solely with the benefit of publishers in mind.