LIS + DataSci
(Previous posts: #1, #2, #3) After 20 years of steady but containable erosion of the library's customary position as an institution that controlled everything within itself, the final (and ultimately fatal) blow came in the mid-1990's: The World Wide Web. As the Web grew from
Chapbook
He wanted to teach us to despise the soppy mush of feeling, the false generosity that for an instant, and in all good faith, promises the sun, moon and stars, convinced of its own generous impulse, but that for all sorts of sound, valid reasons draws back when it comes
LIS + DataSci
(Previous posts: #1, #2) The second crack in the century-long stability of American libraries began to arrive in the 1980s: Online databases. These databases vastly expanded patron access to periodicals without requiring an equally vast building program. The percentage of library collection budgets spent on these databases has steadily
LIS + DataSci
In my last post, I described the characteristics of libraries during the century before 1975. During that century, libraries faced no fundamental changes and were fully in control of how they presented themselves to patrons. That stability and control have now been shattered. Why? The first crack came with the
LIS + DataSci
Until recently the online catalog continued to contain records only for items physically held by the library system. As libraries have entered into cooperative relationships, this principle of telling "what the library has" has eroded. In union catalogs that contain records from libraries of more than one institution,
LIS + DataSci
[W]e have all kinds of tools that are organized to aid in the process of finding information that we need: telephone books, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, indexes, catalogs, museum registers, archival finding aids, and databases, among others. -- Arlene G. Taylor, The Organization of Information (Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited, 2004)
LIS + DataSci
We organize because we need to retrieve. -- Arlene G. Taylor, The Organization of Information (Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited, 2004), pg. 1. Leaving aside the folks who organize because of OCD… Is there a good study out there about the range of ways that library patrons use to retrieve? Librarians organize
Chapbook
We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for "
Music
Three songs that go well together: * "Vienna" by Billy Joel * "Vienna" by Ultravox * "Leipzig" by Thomas Dolby
Books
Among all forms of prehistoric religion, the strangest and most difficult to understand in our own day seems the cult of the dead, the constant presence of the dead in every aspect of life. To a prehistoric man, in contrast, our strangest and most mysterious form of worship would be
History
In his book The Ruin of Kasch, Roberto Calasso argues that humanity lost an important outlet when we banned the ritual of sacrifice, because the craving to sacrifice now permeates life rather than being bounded and limited by the tradition of a ritual. The Aztecs killed a few to (as
Life
On the one hand, I own enough already to keep me busy for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I still want everything on my Amazon wishlist.