Metablogging
cagapakis | April 1, 2011Perhaps you have noticed that I haven't been blogging very much lately. Probably not, which is why I don't ever do these "sorry for not posting" posts, but I'm making an exception this time because it is a very special occasion. So, apologies for my recent lack of posts, but I got married last weekend! Of course, my wedding was not without biologically inspired design appropriate for mention on this blog. On my special day I wore Nervous System's algae inspired Filament Necklace.
Nervous System is a small and awesome company that combines background in biology, architecture, math, and…
cagapakis | January 30, 2011All the science blogs are talking about it. Where are all the female science bloggers? The question itself and the long lists of great bloggers who happen to be female bring up a lot of interesting questions about what makes a good blog, what is best for blog (self-)promotion, who is in what science blogging clique, what it means to write about "women's issues," and what it means to be a woman in science. But what these lists (and the blogs that they're on) highlight even more is just how homogeneous the community can be: Where are the non-white science bloggers? Where are the LGBTIQ science…
dsalo | August 3, 2010Looking for us? We're happy to say that we're part of the new Scientopia blogging collective. Come see us there!
dsalo | July 8, 2010So, the PepsiCo blog thing. Right.
Advance disclaimer: this is me talking, not either of my illustrious co-bloggers. We have not yet made a decision about what to do; one co-blogger is across the pond at a conference and the other is vacationing, so that discussion will have to wait a bit. This is just my take.
Book of Trogool is very small fry at ScienceBlogs. Very small. SB was a bit dubious about it at the start, to tell the truth, and if their info-science stable had been better-established I doubt they'd have taken it on. I'm very grateful that they did, because I needed them.
One of the…
dsalo | June 24, 2010I am bursting with pride to introduce Sarah Shreeves and Elizabeth Brown as co-bloggers here on Book of Trogool!
(You'll have to excuse me if I go over my exclamation-point quota. I'm just so excited about this!)
I will let them tell you about themselves; I'll just say that Sarah works for the University of Illinois, and Elizabeth works for Binghamton University, and they're both fabulous librarians I'm very proud to know.
Please expect some dust over the next few days or weeks as I fiddle with the templates to make them co-blogger-friendly and ensure that it's clear who's written what. And…
dsalo | June 15, 2010Other people are doing NPG vs. CDL link roundups better than I am, so I'll limit myself to a few links:
Think this is a one-off moment of insanity on NPG's part? Bernd-Christoph Kaemper demonstrates the pattern.
Steve Lawson of Colorado College shares text of an email he sent to faculty at his institution. He is graciously allowing the rest of us to plunder his wording. Go ye and spread the signal!
The next domino? How many more will there be?
Have you read Bethany Nowviskie's Fight Club Soap post yet? If you haven't, do. If you have, you might want to check back for the comments, some of…
dsalo | June 4, 2010Another reason it's been quiet around here is that comments haven't been appearing.
This was my fault (though I am innocent of any ill intent), and I apologize with all my heart. What happened was this: I was getting quite a bit of the particularly obnoxious kind of spam that copies other comments to appear legitimate. I cranked up the behind-the-scenes spam filter, which cheerfully snaffled every single comment and then bitbucketed them after a few days.
I didn't notice this (except to wonder why nobody was commenting! I figured it was me…) until one gentleman asked me in gmail today whether…
dsalo | June 3, 2010*blows off the dust*
It's been quiet around here. Sorry about that. Morphing jobs is chaotic, as is moving offices. I've missed a writing deadline, made another, and have a third coming up. I don't have a proper desk in my new office yet (I will soon), and my current makeshift is making my good old RSI flare up, which disinclines me to type more in the evenings.
I'm also still thinking about things. I'm grateful for the out-of-band comments I've received. Mostly (and my apologies if I traduce anyone) the themes are these:
My writings are still useful to people, and
I don't seem to be making…
dsalo | May 17, 2010I need to lift the iron curtain between this blog and my workplace. I beg your indulgence for one post.
As those who read Bora's interview with me know, I discontinued my previous blog Caveat Lector because I was informed that it was causing significant distress to individuals in my workplace. In my best judgment, I could not continue to blog there in any capacity without it appearing that I had simply brushed off the problems I caused. I took those problems very seriously indeed, as the closure of CavLec bears witness.
When I came to ScienceBlogs, I intentionally structured Book of Trogool…
dsalo | April 22, 2010My husband and I have been stranded by the ash cloud from Iceland. We are well-housed thanks to good friends and the strength of weak ties, so there is no need to worry about us. With luck, we'll be able to get home Tuesday the 27th.
Blogging will continue to be sporadic until we're home.
I couldn't let Yale's shortsighted decision to free-ride on open access pass without comment, however. This has always been a danger for gold open access: that libraries would protect their toll-access collection budgets by choosing to free-ride on others' support of open-access journals.
It is wrong for any…
dsalo | April 8, 2010I am off to bonnie Scotland tomorrow for the UK Serials Group conference. I'll also be jogging down to Bath to meet some of the fine people at UKOLN and talk data.
There's a tremendous amount happening rather fast around serials at present; I wish I had time to blog it all, but I don't—I have a class to give tonight and a little more packing to do.
See you soon! And if you're coming to UKSG, please do say hello.
dsalo | March 18, 2010First, a small warning: I am having an extremely crowded and busy week, so blogging here (even the catchup I need to do to the many excellent comments on the Battle of the Opens post) will suffer.
Something for folks to chew on in the meantime: can anybody explain to me what this tool (if it is a tool) actually does? I clicked over thinking it might be a good thing to add to a tidbits post, but I confess myself wholly flummoxed by the jargon therein.
Any ideas, anyone? Especially anyone with a health-care background?
dsalo | February 23, 2010I've been interviewed by Bora Zivkovic, apropos of many things. Click over if you've a mind.
dsalo | January 30, 2010I'm getting quite a few more comments here than when I started, which is lovely! To keep the conversation lively and civil, I've put together a comment policy, which you can find on the blog's About page. (I'll link to it from the sidebar momentarily.)
It's mostly common sense. Moreover, I haven't had to edit or delete a non-spam comment here yet.
Still, I'd rather have a policy and not need it than need it and not have it. So now it's there.
dsalo | January 17, 2010I'm still at Science Online 2010 and will have observations on it later, but first I'd like to acknowledge and celebrate a resource that has been absolutely crucial to my professional career—and indeed, to my profession.
Open Access News, under the able direction of Peter Suber and Gavin Baker, has for years been the single best source of smart information and informed opinion for open-access advocates. Both Peter and Gavin are taking their shows on the road, and while OAN will continue, it won't be what it was.
OAN has been my first info-stop as long as I've been a librarian. I will miss it…
cagapakis | January 5, 2010Hello! I'm so excited to be joining the ScienceBlogs community! I'll be focusing mostly on synthetic biology, defined in the past decade as two main approaches to life science research:
One uses unnatural molecules to reproduce emergent behaviours from natural biology, with the goal of creating artificial life. The other seeks interchangeable parts from natural biology to assemble into systems that function unnaturally. Either way, a synthetic goal forces scientists to cross uncharted ground to encounter and solve problems that are not easily encountered through analysis.
(from Benner and…
dsalo | November 28, 2009Book of Trogool has just been added to Planet Code4Lib, a library-technology blog reader. I am of course honored to be in some very fine company.
I have a mixed readership here: librarians, technology pros, researchers from several disciplines. I encourage all my readers to pop over to take a look at Planet Code4Lib.
If you're not a librarian, chances are that your image of the library and the librarians who staff it is… well, a bit fusty and out-of-date. Planet Code4Lib will open your eyes in a hurry. Do we do the things you think we do? Well, yes, probably. But that's not all we do.
If you…
dsalo | November 16, 2009I got a very nice email the other day thanking me for being a clearinghouse for e-research information. I'm not quite sure I am that, but just in case I've become it without noticing…
What I read in the area and think is worthwhile enough to keep around ends up in a few places, all of which have RSS feeds:
the Data Curation folder in my Zotero (you may also be interested in the Digital Humanities or Digital Preservation folders)
the toblog and datacuration tags in my del.icio.us (items in the "toblog" tag end up in tidbits posts here—usually)
Happy to share these, and also happy to start up a…
dsalo | November 13, 2009By way of amplifying the signal: the 5th International Digital Curation Conference is coming up in London in December. I will be there in spirit only, I fear, but I hope there will be a Twitter hashtag I can follow?
Chris Rusbridge has blogged the program.
(If I seem more scatterbrained than usual, it's because most of my spare time and brainspace is currently devoted to building a course I will be teaching online in the spring for Illinois's GSLIS. It's a "Topics in Collection Development" course, which means I have to view things through a lens I'm almost completely unfamiliar with—I don't…
dsalo | October 13, 2009If you've been having trouble commenting, you're not alone—the comment form quit working for me a couple days ago.
I wrote in to Erin, and from where I'm sitting, the problem has been fixed. If you're not getting comment-form love, email me at dorothea.salo at gmail and I'll see what I can do.
Speaking of comments: I am despotic about them, I'm afraid. If I suspect you're a spammer, or if I'm sure you're a timewaster, your comment will silently disappear. I don't expect to have to pull the trigger often (even spam levels around here have been muted), but a warning is only fair.