ePrints

Well, I finally finished the ePrints assignment last night. After looking at the dB, I figured it out, though like many other students it seemed like the hardest part of it was knowing where to begin. At first, I wasn't even sure if I had to download it until I read the dB! In any case, uploading some of the large .pdf files was definitely the most time-consuming part of it along with having to switch from IE (to access the VPN) back to Firefox, my regular browser. That wasn't such a big deal, though. I also mistakenly forgot to save some of the information I found for the citations in a text file, so I just decided to type in the entire abstacts instead of going into the VPN again for some of the entries. Again, I hope I get all the metadata that I needed to, though it doesn't seem as important (from what I read on the dB, at least) as getting 25 articles into the live archive. I also didn't provide URLs for the article. I figured the .pdfs were sufficient. I hope this is OK, too, and that I don't get points off.

And speaking of which, I'm wondering when we'll get our grades for the Jing/Zotero assignment. OK, enough ranting.

Information Overload

Information Overload

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This excellent article from the most current issue of the Utne Reader deals directly with some of the topics in both LIS 2000 and this course, LIS 2600. Additionally, the lack of critical thinking and the public/private debate (comparing "benevolent librarian types" and "private companies") in terms of access to information are addressed here as well.

belated thoughts on Jing/Zotero assignment

When I first attempted to do the assignment, I realized that I'd never made an audio recording using a computer. I thought for sure that I'd have to purchase a microphone or a webcam, but luckily the laptop I was using during the time where we didn't have an internet connection via our desktops (a big storm a few weeks back knocked out our phone service for 3 days and also knocked out our modem and we had to wait for Earthlink to ship us a new one) did the trick. I didn't realize that most of them had built-in mics, so thanks to the instructors for the tip!

I found that it was relatively easy to use Jing, both in terms of the capacity it has for enabling users to make videos and in terms of screen capture (though this was a bit trickier; I had to do it 3-4 times to get it right). Therefore, I found that the toughest part of this assignment was to put it on this blog. In particular, while it was easy to get the video up, the challenge was how to make it fit the screen properly. I experimented with a few different approaches and finally was able to curtail it so that it fit my laptop screen, albeit at the expense of screen clarity. It's too bad that Blogger doesn't resize it automatically, but it's easy enough to change the HTML code references to height and width (thanks for the tips). I ended up changing only 3 of the references to height and width and not all of them, but I still think that it did the trick (?).

Now it's full speed ahead onto the eprints assignment!

In this word factory, replacement parts are free

I don't know how much this really has to do with librarianship, but it does have an awful lot to do with books (and specifically, textbooks). I don't know if this is an isolated case (though one would hope so) or if it's emblematic and indicative of the struggles of the publishing industry, even in an industry as relative secure (or one would think, at least) as one that makes textbooks that are used nationwide. What do you all think?

Ray Bradbury

I don't know what you think of when you think of the legendary author science-fiction Ray Bradbury, but I tend to think of his most famous work, which is of course Fahrenheit 451. Now this is a book that many of you probably had to read at one point in your academic career (perhaps in middle school or high school), so I'm sure that many of you will be familiar with it or at least its basic premise.

As a lover of knowledge and information, societies which practice book burning horrify me, as they should any civilized person. This doesn't just include the burning of literature in Nazi Germany or the many raids on libraries throughout history (such as the ones we just read about in Glut for LIS 2000), but also more modern examples like the burning of Beatles records and memoribilia in the mid '60s after John Lennon made his infamous and widely misunderstood statement about the Beatles being "bigger than Jesus". Other examples include the blatantly racist and homophobic burning of disco records in 1979 at Chicago's Comiskey Park and more recently, Dixie Chicks CDs being burned after Natalie Maines made an anti-war statement in London during the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In any case, it should come as no surprise that the author of Fahrenheit 451 should be such a huge supporter of the public library system. He's on the front page of today's New York Times in reference to the Ventura, CA public library. You can read the article here.

The article also reminds us that the current crisis facing the public library system here in Philadelphia (for those outside of the area who may not know, due to a budget crisis, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter has threatened to shut down 11 branches, all in underserved, low-income communities, though thus far the branches have fortunately remained open) is a nationwide one as well.

I should also note that Bradbury's opinion of the internet, is well to put it generously, narrow-minded and unenlightened. Therefore, I don't agree with everything he says here, but his dedication to public libraries is admirable.

As a side note that's sort of appropos of nothing related to this post other than the name, there was a New York-based hardcore punk group named Fahrenheit 451 in the late '90s. I don't know how long they lasted or if they're still around. I guess I might have to look into that one.

Assignment 4 (Zotero Installation Video)

I apologize for the scratchiness of my microphone, especially towards the end of the video, but this is the first time I've ever narrated an audio presentation and it's the only mic I have at the moment. Anyway, I hope you can understand me.

I also apologize that this out-of-scale. I tried resizing the height and width, but there's still a disconnect between the screen size and what it shows on blogger.

What's the Word?

Here's an article about the one-millionth English word and the predictable controversy amongst academics. Guess what it is? Web 2.0. How appropriate.

Arcade Publishing Files for Bankruptcy

This may have more to do with LIS 2000, but here's a short blurb about Arcade Publishing having to file for bankruptcy. I don't know if this is an isolated base or if it's indicative of a larger trend amongst book publishers, but of course I hope it's the former and not the latter!

Assignment 4 blues

If anyone can help with the audio narrative portion, please get in touch!

I think you're crazy...

Click here to read about acclaimed producer (and 1/2 of Gnarls Barkley) Danger Mouse's new "CD". I put "CD" in quotation marks because the disc in question has no actual music on it. Part of me think this is a publicity stunt for a more traditional release in a few months or so. However, this isn't the first time Danger Mouse has been in legal hot water. He made his name by releasing The Grey Album, a mash-up of The Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's The Black Album with Jay-Z's rhymes on top of The Beatles' tracks.

I should also credit Grackles and the Truth for reporting on this first.

I wonder if the Stockholm Pirates would've swept the Mets last week

Here is a rather interesting article on Sweden's Free-Web party. This is the first I've ever heard of such a political party existing anywhere in the world. Given my feelings about these matters, I'd consider voting for them. I certainly believe in as much de-regulation of the internet as possible and that it should kept a free, open forum. I'm also strongly in favor of net neutrality and strongly opposed to large corporations squeezing fines (with threats of lawsuits) from so-called "thieves". This is a strategy which they've largely abandoned in the last year or so since they finally understand that it's horrible PR to sue your own customers and that it breeds a lot of well-justified ill will, but they still insist on going after sites like piratebay even though the spread of information online is virtually unstoppable. I can go on in much greater detail about this, but I figured that this might be food for thought for all of you given today's LIS 2000 presentation on fair use and what not.

Well well blogs go on long after the thrill of blogging is gone

Check out yesterday's New York Times article on blogging here.

WorldCat assignment and other assorted ramblings

Well, I finished up the WorldCat assignment yesterday. Overall, I'd say that this assignment was far less difficult, more straightforward and thus took a far shorter amount of time than the previous assignment (Scopus, RefWorks, etc.) did. The only part that confused me initially was the RIS format aspect, but once I looked at the message board, I was finally able to get it. I'm still not sure if we can export it in .csv format, but while I'm unsure, I submitted it in the format that was assigned in the syllabus. I hope I wasn't supposed to do it in .csv as well, but I'll take that chance (unless someone tells me otherwise).

Otherwise, I'm still trying to figure out how we can find out how we're doing in this class. LIS 2000 is much easier to keep track of. Will we just get all of our grades at the end of the term?

Yet Another One...

Here's another fun article from Saturday's New York Times that I missed until today. Click here to read, or re-read.

More on the BookExpo

If you click here, you can read another article about the BookExpo held this past weekend in New York City. This one deals more with the book publishing industry and its future. Like the article I linked to in my previous post, this one also deals with digitization.

Extra Extra! Read All About It!

I found an interesting article about Google's plan to compete with the Amazon Kindle in today's New York Times that may be of interest to some of you and that also encompass some of what we're learning in LIS 2000 and to a lesser extent, in LIS 2600 as well. Enjoy!

Click here.