Study of the impact of the internet on library use

The IMLS has funded the University at Buffalo School of Informatics to conduct a follow-up to a study of the impact of the internet on library use. “At that time, we found that 55 percent of the library users surveyed had Internet access at home,” D’Elia says, “so it was clear that use of the two information sources was not an either-or proposition. Internet users also use the library rather.. Read More

Someone give this man a job

NPR’s Morning Edition ran a story about Joseph Nga, which is just amazing. He’s from Cameroon, he’s bilingual, he has two Masters degrees already and is working on his third, an MLS. He’s working a total grunt job at LC and he wants to be a director of a research library. Someone give this man a job, please? And pay him well, for heavens sake. Good grief, if only he.. Read More

Wikipedia

I experienced a bit of manual trackback yesterday, as I followed a trail of links that started with this post from BoingBoing, to this op-ed by Larry Sanger, and finally to this response by Clay Shirky. Shirky writes about expertise, and Sanger would have us believe that the wikipedia crew thinks about expertise as if it were a bad thing. Not just with a lack of respect, what Sanger refers.. Read More

The “self-healing” quality of debate?

I love conspiracy theories. I think I like them so much because they’re absolutely the opposite of science; they can never be falsified. Conspiracy theories are compelling to me because they’re self-sustaining and impervious to outside influences; they’re intellectual black holes. Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate, from the NY Times On an “authority by community” note, this passage was of particular interest: Online discussion can evolve toward truth,.. Read More

NC libraries rock

I don’t know Brenda Stephens, but she’s the director of the Hyconeechee regional library system and the N.C. Association of Regional Library Directors has named her the library director of the year for 2004. I thought this would make a nice follow-up to Paul’s CHampion Library post. Librarian does what it takes, from the Chapel Hill News And how cool is it that her first library job was driving a.. Read More

Blogs vs. CNN

I read this story the other dayand it’s been kicking around in my head since. I can’t decide if I think this is a demonstration of why mainstream media is useless or necessary. Blogs Provide Raw Details From Scene of the Disaster, from the NY Times On the one hand, mainstream media outlets will have what, one or a few correspondents in any given nation? I mean, honestly, how many.. Read More

Boston is not for sissies

God, I love my hometown. “Boston is for people who can grasp a mental map,” said Gail Sullivan, a Jamaica Plain architect and planner, talking to City Weekly last April. “It’s not for sissies.” And just because I’ve never included an image in a post yet, here’s the most feared map in Boston: You said it, we heard it, here’s proof, from The Globe (what, like there’s another one?)

Open Access

Gratifying that the issue of open access publishing is getting some ink in the popular press. Even if the coverage is a bit simplistic: “… it doesn’t make sense for journals to charge fees for access to primary research articles when that research is supported largely by public funding.” Open Access, from Slate

2004 cybercrime retrospective

Cyber crime booms in 2004, from BBC Interesting excerpts: The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. One of the biggest changes of 2004 was the waning influence of the boy hackers keen to make a name by writing a fast-spreading virus … 2004 saw a significant rise in criminal use of malicious programs. … This change in.. Read More