July 2000

Obsessing over our image

Someone suggested yet another article on the \”Librarian Image\” thing. In a profession obsessed with its image, it wasn\’t like we needed another site that talks about the image of the librarian, so I was less than interested, but This one was really interesting. This Article at Imapct does a great job looking at all the different librarian sites around the net. It covers all the classics, belly dancing, tatoos, worship a librarian, Librarian.net, etc.. but goes in depth on the images, and other sites. A very interesting read. Includes 45 references!

\”So where should the image-obsessed, web-surfing library professional begin? A quick search on Alta Vista for
\’librarian*\’ will uncover over a million hits . It is the intention of this article to give some pointers to interesting
sites and useful gateways, and to explore what types of \’image sources\’ and \’image representations\’ are
available in cyberspace.\”

Someone suggested yet another article on the \”Librarian Image\” thing. In a profession obsessed with its image, it wasn\’t like we needed another site that talks about the image of the librarian, so I was less than interested, but This one was really interesting. This Article at Imapct does a great job looking at all the different librarian sites around the net. It covers all the classics, belly dancing, tatoos, worship a librarian, Librarian.net, etc.. but goes in depth on the images, and other sites. A very interesting read. Includes 45 references!

\”So where should the image-obsessed, web-surfing library professional begin? A quick search on Alta Vista for
\’librarian*\’ will uncover over a million hits . It is the intention of this article to give some pointers to interesting
sites and useful gateways, and to explore what types of \’image sources\’ and \’image representations\’ are
available in cyberspace.\”From the article

have a reputation. No, not as a naked, tattooed, belly-dancing librarian into facial decoration (well, a boy has
got to have some secrets!). I have a reputation as someone ever so slightly obsessed with the image of our
profession.

One of the key benefits of this reputation is that
friends – and strangers – are always willing to give
me fresh examples of (usually quite appalling)
representations of libraries and library workers in
the popular media. Work colleagues can always be
relied upon to inform me of relevant programmes I
might have missed from last night\’s television, or to
cram clippings from newspapers I would never
normally read into my pigeon hole. (I once even
received a copy of the Daily Express from one
anonymous donor.) And strangers? The Library
World is such a wonderful community that if you
write an article on the image of librarianship, you
always (he hinted with hope!) get sent examples of
good, bad and ugly librarians from the stage, screen
and literature, within a week of publication.

July 25, 2000 by Libraries

the NEW Seattle Library

The Los Angeles Times has an article on the architect who is designing the new Seattle Public Library, set to be finished by 2003.

\”More sculptural in form than anything Koolhaas has yet designed, the library is a physical expression of the struggle to both maintain the sanctity of public space and build an efficient technological machine in a world that is in a constant state of flux.\”

And here is a commentary from the Seattle Times from someone who doesn\’t like it. Read on…

The Los Angeles Times has an article on the architect who is designing the new Seattle Public Library, set to be finished by 2003.

\”More sculptural in form than anything Koolhaas has yet designed, the library is a physical expression of the struggle to both maintain the sanctity of public space and build an efficient technological machine in a world that is in a constant state of flux.\”

And here is a commentary from the Seattle Times from someone who doesn\’t like it. Read on…


\”Rem Koolhaas proclaims eloquently about furthering the urbanity of Seattle, yet he has designed a most uncivil building in the new Seattle Public Library.
His library plan confuses amusement-park posturing with urbane vitality. It is isolated from the street. It would better fit in a suburban office park than a city street.\”

\”It is still not too late to revise Koolhaas’ design to meet his goals and create a true \”living room\” for Seattle.\”

\”The architect and the Library Board need to notice if this building connects to the streets around it. The key question is: Does the design create a \”pedestrian-friendly\” Seattle? On a \”pedestrian-friendly\” street, people like to walk, peer into interesting windows and bump into other people.\”

\”We pay too much attention to how a building appears; the central question for every building is how it behaves. Does the design connect the inside with the outside? The library design must ultimately place existing library functions at street level if it is to contribute to a lively streetscape.\”

\”Rem Koolhaas’ blueprint for the Seattle Public Library reminds us that even a Pritzker Prize-winning, globe-trotting architect must adhere to the rules of good urban design.\”

July 25, 2000 by Librarians Libraries

Library Accused of being too liberal

The Washington Times has this article on the collection development practices of some libraries.

\”Just how representative of its readers should a library be?
Should a library system in a heavily Democratic county have a surplus of left-leaning books? Should a majority Republican county be weighted toward conservative literature?

The Washington Times has this article on the collection development practices of some libraries.

\”Just how representative of its readers should a library be?
Should a library system in a heavily Democratic county have a surplus of left-leaning books? Should a majority Republican county be weighted toward conservative literature?


\”?
In an on-line survey of six Washington-area library systems, The Washington Times found that all had listings favoring, by varying degrees, the liberal side of the political spectrum. Fairfax (Va.) and Prince George\’s County (Md.) systems leaned the least; the District of Columbia and Montgomery (Md.), Frederick (Va.), Arlington (Va.) County systems veered left the most.\”


\”The topic surfaced recently when a conservative Web site reported that a public library in Toledo, Ohio, was giving unequal treatment to conservative patrons.\”


\”An anonymous library staff member told World Net Daily that while the library was allowing the local Planned Parenthood affiliate to meet on its property, it was turning down similar requests by conservative organizations such as Young Republicans or local Christian Coalition groups.\”


\”Local media picked up the story in June, and the matter was discussed on \”Dr. Laura\” Schlessinger\’s radio talk show. Although the Toledo Blade newspaper found the Web site\’s assertions were exaggerated, they touched on another facet of the debate — the political slant of books ordered by librarians. Back in 1996, the Toledo library had rejected a couple\’s donation of two copies of a highly critical biography of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.\”

July 25, 2000 by Librarians Libraries

Setting up an XML Backend

KMMag.com has an Article on the pros of setting up data centers using XML. I would imagine XML is going to be used more in OPACs, given the flexibility and robusness of the language. Has anyone started using XML in a library setting yet?

\”For example, XML-based systems can replace complex, expensive systems for electronic data interchange (EDI). Others can form a bridge for moving data between legacy applications and online systems, shielding users and developers from working with the actual code.\”

KMMag.com has an Article on the pros of setting up data centers using XML. I would imagine XML is going to be used more in OPACs, given the flexibility and robusness of the language. Has anyone started using XML in a library setting yet?

\”For example, XML-based systems can replace complex, expensive systems for electronic data interchange (EDI). Others can form a bridge for moving data between legacy applications and online systems, shielding users and developers from working with the actual code.\”

More from kmmag.com\”\”XML has been a content-oriented technology, but the real advances will come around XML messaging,\” says Nathaniel Palmer, an analyst with the Delphi Group in Boston. Content-oriented XML is used primarily for describing the different kinds of content in a document, such as author, date and text. In contrast, message-oriented XML describes data.

In spite of the multiplicity of applications and platforms within companies, line-of-business managers and users demand that these systems work together. Messaging-oriented middleware (MOM), which communicates between applications and operating systems, addresses this requirement, and XML can help to automate communications between them. MOM can translate data from various applications into XML, which in turn makes it easier to translate into other application formats. This requires much less work than doing one-to-one translations between every pair of application format types in an enterprise.

July 25, 2000 by Internet Libraries

On-line dissertation sales

A Story
from The
Chicago Tribune
talks about new a new company called \”contentville\”
that is selling dissertations online, much to the suprise
of some of the authors. Raises some big questions on
IP and copywright.

\”Dissertations are going to be one of our
interesting product categories,\” said Matthew Sappern,
vice president of marketing for Contentville. \”They\’re
holding their own quite well. We\’re happy the product is
moving.\”

A Story
from The
Chicago Tribune
talks about new a new company called \”contentville\”
that is selling dissertations online, much to the suprise
of some of the authors. Raises some big questions on
IP and copywright.

\”Dissertations are going to be one of our
interesting product categories,\” said Matthew Sappern,
vice president of marketing for Contentville. \”They\’re
holding their own quite well. We\’re happy the product is
moving.\”\”It\’s outrageous,\” said Cristan Greaves, who was
shocked to find her 1982 master\’s thesis, \”To Regain a
Sense of Place: A Study of the Prose of N. Scott
Monaday,\” advertised for sale on Contentville. Monaday
is a Native American writer.


Greaves, a high school English teacher in Redlands,
Calif., who completed her thesis at California State
University-Fullerton, said she recalls signing
paperwork that stipulated her thesis would be kept at
the university as a research tool.


\”There was no indication at all it would be later sold to a
clearinghouse or anything like that to be put up for
sale,\” she said. \”It comes down to the issue that
somebody took something that wasn\’t theirs and is
selling it to make money.\”

July 25, 2000 by Internet Legal Issues School Libraries

Web NOT Hurting Newspapers

Wired has a Story that says all is well in the newspaper world. Contrary to popular belief, the web hasn\’t killed newspapers, now they make more money from ads on the web sites.

\”Fear of the Internet is turning out to be totally far-fetched,\” he told Reuters. \”There are more pluses than minuses for newspapers.\”

He pointed to Monday\’s figures from Knight Ridder Inc., the No. 2 U.S. newspaper chain, which publishes 32 daily newspapers with a daily readership of 8.7 million and 12.9 million on Sundays.

Wired has a Story that says all is well in the newspaper world. Contrary to popular belief, the web hasn\’t killed newspapers, now they make more money from ads on the web sites.

\”Fear of the Internet is turning out to be totally far-fetched,\” he told Reuters. \”There are more pluses than minuses for newspapers.\”

He pointed to Monday\’s figures from Knight Ridder Inc., the No. 2 U.S. newspaper chain, which publishes 32 daily newspapers with a daily readership of 8.7 million and 12.9 million on Sundays.
More from wired

The view on the street Monday was that USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and scores of newspapers in small-town America are doing very well, thank you. Revenue from advertising is more than making up for a slow decline in circulation and a rise in newsprint prices that has eaten into profits.

\”They are beating (financial) expectations across the board,\” said Ed Atorino, a newspaper industry analyst at Wasserstein Perella Securities. \”I thought second-quarter expectations were pretty conservative, but ad growth is strong nationally and classified (advertising) has held up better than Wall Street expected.

July 24, 2000 by Internet

King releases new ebook, with strings

Well, Stephen King
has released the first part of his new ebook today,
HERE
. The deal is you pay a buck for the .pdf
download. This is
only the first part of the story, the next part will be online next month. Here\’s the catch,
part 3 comes only if 75% of the people have paid for the download.

This will be very interesting to watch, could anyone other than King pull this off?

July 24, 2000 by Books EBooks Internet

Bishops on filtering

Someone sent in this interesting Story from Clarionherald.
They wrote:

\”Guidelines for using Cyberspace wisely\” states, \”Remind your children that some library computers offer free access to dangerous Web sites (the American Civil Liberties contests some filtering systems and the American Library Association has been adamant in demanding that library computers do not restrict access to porn sites). \”
\”

The article goes over the statement, from the U.S. Bishops, intended to help parents guide their children in use of the Internet .

\”In the simplest terms, Ignatius teaches that we must be careful in discerning what is good, what is evil and what is neutral in our lives. It follows then that we should embrace what is good, reject what is evil and make use of what is neutral in a positive way in our spiritual life. \”

Someone sent in this interesting Story from Clarionherald.
They wrote:

\”Guidelines for using Cyberspace wisely\” states, \”Remind your children that some library computers offer free access to dangerous Web sites (the American Civil Liberties contests some filtering systems and the American Library Association has been adamant in demanding that library computers do not restrict access to porn sites). \”
\”

The article goes over the statement, from the U.S. Bishops, intended to help parents guide their children in use of the Internet .

\”In the simplest terms, Ignatius teaches that we must be careful in discerning what is good, what is evil and what is neutral in our lives. It follows then that we should embrace what is good, reject what is evil and make use of what is neutral in a positive way in our spiritual life. \”More from Clarion.org-

Number one for parents is to take the time and effort to become educated about the Internet. Number two is to “Select an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides the option of ISP-filtered access.”


Other key points on the checklist include: putting the computer in a public area of the house, not in a bedroom; spend time on the Internet with your children; focus on the good sites available; caution your children never to give out personal information; caution them on e-mail use; encourage your children to think about what they find on the Internet and to talk with you about anything they find questionable or objectionable.


Above all, communicate. Remind your children that some library computers offer free access to dangerous Web sites (the American Civil Liberties contests some filtering systems and the American Library Association has been adamant in demanding that library computers do not restrict access to porn sites).


The pornographers are busy selling their wares on the Internet, and browsing can be a minefield of dangerous porn sites. Some e-mail titles have friendly, seemingly harmless titles, such as one recently received by editor Thomas J. Dermody of the Catholic Post (Peoria, Ill.). Its greeting: “I finally found you. Hi.” The e-mail message was “This is for you. You’re going to love it.” The “gift” was a pornographic site only a mouse click away. Dermody noted that similar invitations go out en masse every day from the more than 60,000 pornographic web sites in Cyberspace.

July 24, 2000 by American Library Association Internet Libraries Web Filters

Journal Costs are Rising…Who is to blame?!

Here is an interesting article from the Tribune Review. The cost of scholarly journals is rising, along with the amount of works being published in them, and libraries can\’t keep up. Some blame the \”Publish or Perish\” syndrome, which may not necessarily produce the best quality of work.

\”We\’re trying to take a look at the incentives that drive scholarly publishing,\” said John Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities. The incentives should focus more on the quality of the work, the contribution it makes to the discipline, and less on a simple count of the number of publications.\”

Here is an interesting article from the Tribune Review. The cost of scholarly journals is rising, along with the amount of works being published in them, and libraries can\’t keep up. Some blame the \”Publish or Perish\” syndrome, which may not necessarily produce the best quality of work.

\”We\’re trying to take a look at the incentives that drive scholarly publishing,\” said John Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities. The incentives should focus more on the quality of the work, the contribution it makes to the discipline, and less on a simple count of the number of publications.\”



\”The Washington, D.C.-based association represents 61 of the most prestigious research universities in North America, including Pitt, Penn State and Carnegie Mellon. The group co-sponsored the Arizona meeting.\”

\”Scholarly publication in America has mushroomed since World War II, when federal support of higher education mushroomed. Government agencies evaluate publications to help decide who should win grants.\”

\”The system enables faculty and students around the world to share knowledge. It prevents researchers from duplicating each other\’s work or following leads disproved by others. It also is a major factor in evaluating, promoting and granting tenure.\”

\”But, increasingly, many universities cannot afford the information their own faculty produces.\”

\”In 1986, the 121 members of the Association of Research Libraries spent an average of $1.5 million on an average of 16,312 journals. Last year, its members spent an average of $4.1 million on an average of 15,259 journals.\”

\”That\’s a 170 percent increase in cost for a 6 percent decrease in publication subscriptions.\”

\”Erickson said universities cannot sustain the current system of scholarly publishing.\”

\”This situation is raising havoc with university library budgets and affecting the ability of scholars, particularly in the humanities, to publish their scholarly monographs.\”

\”Librarians blame many factors for the rising costs. One is the publish-or-perish climate.\”

\”The use of publications for promotion and tenure has caused a proliferation of articles,\” said Nancy Eaton, university librarian at Penn State. \”It encourages producing more than you might otherwise.\”

July 24, 2000 by Libraries

Stereotypes still an issue

The Dallas News has this article on librarians and stereotypes. There is a special section of librarian jokes and how some are fed up with it. I happen to love librarian jokes…if you have any, please post them.

\”Stereotypes are stereotypes, and whatever the field or profession, it\’s a matter of taking a look at the person as an individual,\” said Kathleen Walsh, Chicago Public Library spokeswoman. \”But librarians are probably some of the most articulate, smart and energetic people you\’ll come across.\”

The Dallas News has this article on librarians and stereotypes. There is a special section of librarian jokes and how some are fed up with it. I happen to love librarian jokes…if you have any, please post them.

\”Stereotypes are stereotypes, and whatever the field or profession, it\’s a matter of taking a look at the person as an individual,\” said Kathleen Walsh, Chicago Public Library spokeswoman. \”But librarians are probably some of the most articulate, smart and energetic people you\’ll come across.\”



\”The Internet is full of librarian humor. Yahoo! even has a separate category for it.\”

\”But Caron Viglianco, 38, a librarian at John Carroll University in Ohio, isn\’t laughing.We fight against that a lot,\” she said. \”It always angers me when I hear that \’Car Talk\’ [National Public Radio] program, because those two guys always are putting librarians down.\”

\”Others say the stereotypes aren\’t worth fretting about.\”

\”Some people in the profession get hot and bothered by it,\” said Sue Woodson, a librarian at Johns Hopkins University who enjoys wearing comfortable dresses. \”I don\’t care. They can think what they want. It\’s a profession that encompasses a lot of different jobs.\”

\”Some are moving away from the librarian title. Companies now advertise for information specialists rather than librarians, Ms. Atkinson said.\”

\”They\’re probably changing the name because of stereotypes,\” she said.\”

\”As evidenced at the conference, librarians deal with issues well beyond cataloging. One hot topic was the legislation that recently passed Congress mandating filters on library computers. Today, 15 percent of public libraries have Internet filters, said association president Sarah Long.\”

\”It\’s better if people learn how to use the Internet without having for-profit corporations deciding what people can see and what they can\’t,\” Ms. Long said.\”

July 24, 2000 by Internet Libraries Yahoo

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