May 30, 2011
A very, very long time since I've done one of these...
For your reading and collection development pleasure:
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick
In a sense, The Information is a book about everything, from words themselves to talking drums, writing and lexicography, early…
May 29, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
May 27, 2011
Yep, the promised Rapture from this past weekend didn't materialize. Or more precisely, I didn't de-materialize and ascend into heaven this past weekend.
I don't know about you, but I was pretty pissed. Disappointed that I wasn't able to join all my childhood pets at the left hand of god. Or…
May 23, 2011
A very nice article by Ian Brown in this past Saturday's Globe and Mail, Don't discard the librarians.
He very nicely summarizes the recent library/librarian angst that's been free-flowing around the media and blogosphere over the last little while.
The world of librarians was thrown into a tizzy…
May 22, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
May 20, 2011
One of the reason I love the Cronk News so much is that sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry at one of their stories.
This is definitely one of those cases.
Oh, higher ed, you poor, poor deluded little dear.
Take a gander and read the whole article: SUNC Appoints Twelve Efficiency Czars…
May 17, 2011
So, here's the story. A week or so ago, McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak gave an invited presentation at Penn State, tasked by the organizers to be controversial.
To say the least, he succeeded. Perhaps the most controversial idea in the presentation was that he would basically no…
May 16, 2011
From the University of Toronto Academic Librarians' blog:
In response to McMaster University and their Library's recent treatment of their academic librarians and the notable gender imbalance at the May 17 conference at McMaster University (given that 80% of librarians are women), entitled "The…
May 15, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
May 13, 2011
This past Saturday I spent the afternoon at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival at the Toronto Reference Library. It was a blast, I met a ton of great comics people, spent way too much money and supported a lot of great artists and writers.
The highlight was discovering the new collection We Are the…
May 12, 2011
The standard commercial library citation tools, Web of Science (including their newish Proceedings product) and Scopus, have always been a bit iffy for computer science. That's mostly because computer science scholarship is largely conference-based rather than journal-based and those tools are…
May 12, 2011
Inventing the college store of the future
Stepping up to the Genius Bar
Why College Is Not A Bubble (Except For The University Of Phoenix)
Why Academics Should Blog: A College of One's Own
How I Talk About Searching, Discovery and Research in Courses
Future of Media: Lots of Questions, But No…
May 9, 2011
Ok, not really.
It's hard to directly compare the industrial disco-metal stylings of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails with the tango nuevo of Argentina's Astor Piazzolla. The music itself is very different.
Or is it? Both of them -- Piazzolla and Reznor -- certainly create music that has a…
May 8, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
May 6, 2011
I'm not usually a big fan of Seth Godin's guruish pronouncements, but I thought this one was a pretty good encapsulation of what it means to be a public professional or a public academic in the 21st century.
In other words, Why bother having a resume?
If you don't have a resume, what do you have?…
May 6, 2011
I guess it's not just the physical hits to the head that leave a lasting effect on people's brains, but the long-term effects of bad video games also can cause your brains to leak out your ears.
From The Onion, Neurologists Paint Grim Picture Of 'Madden' Football's Long-Term Effect On Players'…
May 4, 2011
Hey Apple, Sony and Amazon: Crisis Response is Real Time Now Too
It's Time to Realize Our Location Concerns Aren't Dumb
The REAL Death Of The Music Industry
What is the Future of Books? Kindle Lending Library, Piracy, and More!
Achievement P o r n
Should Teaching Be Outsourced?
No Room for Books…
May 2, 2011
A while back I posted some semi-coherent ramblings inspired by the HarperCollins/Overdrive mess concerning how libraries were able to license ebook collections for their patrons.
I'm not sure my ideas have changed or solidified or evolved or what, but I've certainly come to a slightly different way…
May 1, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
April 29, 2011
On Tor.com over the last couple of years, Kate Nepveu has been taking us through a chapter-by-chapter re-read of The Lord of the Rings. In each post she would give a brief summary of the action as well as some commentary.
It's been a great project and it's just come to an end in the last week or…
April 28, 2011
How Libraries Can Leverage Twitter
Geeks Are the Future: A Program in Ann Arbor, MI, Argues for a Resource Shift Toward IT
"A New chapter for our Unwinders Management Book - Evaluating Candidates from their Internet Profile"
Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement
What Are Digital…
April 26, 2011
The following is a job posting for the York University Libraries for a Reference Assistant position. Note that a library degree is not required.
The job involves both regular science reference and supporting maps & GIS users and will be both in my unit and the Map Library here at York. For…
April 24, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
April 22, 2011
And perhaps student tweets complaining about professor tweets also reaches an all-time high!
Anyways, here it is, 11am on a holiday Friday morning and all I really want to do is relax and read a book. But what do I have to do? Write a Friday Fun post! What a drag.
So, if I want to get the…
April 21, 2011
The 4 Stages Of Understanding Twitter
5 Myths About the 'Information Age'
Presidential Doppelgängers Tweet
If You're Not On Facebook, It's Time To Get Over Yourself
Conversation is the New Attention
What are Libraries For?
PubMed and beyond: a survey of web tools for searching biomedical…
April 20, 2011
I don't usually announce these sorts of things on the blog, but since Randy is a long-time friend, colleague and fellow Habs fan, I just had to make an exception.
The SLA Engineering Division is the group that hands out the award. From their mailing list:
2011 SLA Engineering Librarian of the Year…
April 19, 2011
Stop the Madness: The Insanity of ROI and the Need for New Qualitative Measures of Academic Library Success
29 Statistics Reveal How The Apple's iPad Is Changing Our Lives
Building Types Study: Libraries
Learning Through Digital Media: Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy
The Academic Library…
April 17, 2011
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
April 16, 2011
Yeah, and I'm touchy and upset and discomfited by this whole thing as much as anyone. This is about my touchiness, not yours. Although please feel free to add your own feelings in the comments.
Thinking about it over the last few days I've come to glimpse the sources of my own unease.
And I've…
April 15, 2011
Ok, not quite.
But I take my little title image from a post by Eric D. Snider on Arianna Huffington's "hostile takeover" of the "pay people fairly for the work they do" culture at AOL. (Yeah, scare quotes are relevant here, read the post.)
Anyways, the post is called, Leaving in a Huff.
And this…
