InfoLitEd

As the web becomes more integrated into everyday life, it seems that it increasingly reflects human beings’ social machinery. This article makes some observations I’m sure many of us were thinking subconsciously, but a lot of the observations hadn’t occurred to me.

One particuarly thought provoking quote, “‘I feel uneasy about the word ‘computing’…have we passed computing?’” I think we have. “Computing” was sooo ’90′s. Your biggest, most powerful web device might be your laptop, but so many other lifestyle appliances are smaller and more integral than ever before. It seems the word “computing” really doesn’t come close to describing what most people are doing with the web. I agree with Hannu Leinonen when he says, “It sounds like counting.” You don’t have a computer just to do your taxes and make spreadsheets.

Proof that this is a topic in mainstream academia…published in Educause this time.

LOCKSS made a lot of sense to me when I researched it a couple of years ago. This is its implementation at some very large, prestigious libraries with some big-hitting publisher sponsors. Sweet.

…teaching until the beginning of this semester rolled around. This is always the busiest time for library instruction, and the end of the semester is the slowest. Before the winter break, I was consumed with preparing workshops, finishing reports, and placing that final book order of the calendar year.
After a stressful break, coming back to work seemed daunting, but I’ve found that I really missed interacting with my students in a class-like setting. It’s helped me blow off steam by cracking jokes (to an audience other than my dog), and seeing comprehension in my students eyes is always uplifting and edifying.

…teaching until the beginning of this semester rolled around. This is always the busiest time for library instruction, and the end of the semester is the slowest. Before the winter break, I was consumed with preparing workshops, finishing reports, and placing that final book order of the calendar year.
After a stressful break, coming back to work seemed daunting, but I’ve found that I really missed interacting with my students in a class-like setting. It’s helped me blow off steam by cracking jokes (to an audience other than my dog), and seeing comprehension in my students eyes is always uplifting and edifying.

I believe I would be a top candidate for this one, but I’m not moving to Detroit. Either way, it’s encouraging that maybe there will be positions like this created at other higher education institutions.

Welcome to the HCC Spring Full-Time Faculty In-Service!

So you’ve heard the term “a rounded collection”.Well what about a lumpy collection? This is what happens when you’ve got a bunch of subject specialists with no authority. I’ve seen it first person.
A dented collection is still a good one, it just needs to be updated in some areas.

I think in the case of the library in which I currently work, we’ve got a rather dented collection with one lump. The lump would be our very well developed humanities section thanks to our knowledgable Coordinator, but we’re workin on those dents!

A dorky librarian note: I actually awoke from a deep sleep on Christmas Eve and immediately rushed to my computer to create this post. What a nerd!

Innovative Intefaces will launch a Pub Sub-like RSS feature in its new OPAC enabling the results of any boolean OPAC search to be sent to a library user. How cool is that!? For example, when I search for (“Abraham Lincoln” AND rivals) I’ll be sure to know as soon as my library receives this brand new book. It’s really great to see library services companies begin to adopt technology from ecommerce.

Relating to my previous post about Tim O’reiley’s comments on the next big life-altering innovation:

This article is a beautiful example of the complete failure of, so called, “collective intelligence”. For hundreds of years, the publishing industry has made it very difficult for false information to be disseminated in a medium that’s freely available to all. Since the development of the WWW, anyone can publish anything, and with the advent of wiki’s, it’s only becoming easier.

Will there come a day when valid information no longer exists? There will be no editors (with high or terminal degrees in their fields), there will be no expensive printing presses, no reference books or reference librarians. All information will be hearsay taken as truth, and we will exist in a world of misinformation.

I think Wikipedia has great potential for harnessing the planet’s collective ignorance and promoting it as god-given truth…I’m shaking in my librarian boots.