Library Literature
Current Cites for August 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
With reality being such a downer these days, I wrote about futurist visions of the library from a hundred years or more. This is how the thing ends:
In the utopian public library there was no fighting, no thievery, no noisy disturbances—in short, nothing to disrupt the general quiet and harmony that should reign within a library interior. People entered quietly, located the books they wanted, and either left or lingered to read or enjoy some quiet conversation. In utopia everyone knew how to use a library.*
*Kevin J. Hayes. "The Public Library in Utopia." Libraries & the Cultural Record 45.3 (2010): 333-349. Project MUSE. 23 Aug. 2010
Current Cites for July 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
Now this is no ordinary edition! Rather it's the 20th Anniversary Edition of our online current awareness service. Speaking for myself, I've merely been doing this since 2001 but Roy who's been there from the beginning has got a screed up at the top of the page explaining (whimsically):
While sloppily and apathetically compiling this month's screed which masquerades as a newsletter, it occurred to me that we have been foisting this dreck on an unsuspecting and mostly innocent public every single month for exactly 20 years.
May Ranganathan have mercy on your soul!
UPDATE: See Roy's "Lessons From 20 Years of Current Cites".
Current Cites for June 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
I wrote about two articles, one on advances in Augmented Reality (AR) from June's Communications of the ACM and the other on a note of advice from the editor of Library & Information Science Research on how to write a proper abstract.
Current Cites for May 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
Current Cites for April 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
My stuff included the article Roy missed from last month on the Internet's 'Third Decade'. I also included an interesting, not to mention innovative, approach to digital preservation from this month's Library Hi Tech.
Current Cites for March 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
Unfortunately, Roy sent the thing out before noticing my review of the article, "Engineering the Web's Third Decade". It'll have to wait till next month's issue but here's a sneak-peek:
As we enter the Internet's 'Third Decade', it's only natural to speculate on what 'Web 3.0' will look like. One of the characteristics, at least judging by this article, will be a healthy dose of 'modesty'. Development will be "more evolutionary than revolutionary". We can expect a "more dynamic, pervasive, and perhaps even more human experience". The focus will be on semantic mark-up and how this can be used to bring together an unprecedented amount of data, fashioned specifically for the particular needs of the individual user. Probably more attention could have been paid in the article to the role of individuals not simply as consumers of content but as creators. That said, it presents an interesting portrait of the work and thinking behind the much anticipated 'third generation Web'.
Current Cites for February 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
I wrote about this rather striking article by Peter Jacso where he completely trashes the job Google Scholar is doing getting correct bibliographic information together for its entries. His tone is quite strident and as I say, you really have to wonder why Google can't get this right. On the other hand, if their product is so broken in this respect, why should academics (who should know better) be using it in the first place.
Nice quote from an article in this month's American Libraries:
Winner Carolyn Wheeler told the audience of well-wishers [at the 2009 I Love My Librarian Award Ceremony in NYC] that she has a poster in her library that reads" "Did you ask a good question today?" That, Wheeler noted, sums up the best way to learn to love your librarian.
As long as people ask those questions, there'll always be a place for the library in their lives.
Current Cites for January 2010 is out! You can find the issue here...
I listed an article by two librarians at Univ. of Minnesota that explained their elaborate but ultimately successful decision-making process to improve library services.
Equally as interesting: Roy recommended the "2010 Horizon Report" on emerging technology in higher ed, and Susan Gibbons recommended "The Library Study at Fresno State" (pdf), a study of students using "a wide array of anthropological and ethnographic methods".
Current Cites for November 2009 is out! You can find the issue here...
This month was a twofer: Since I've been hooking up a number of sites I administer to Google Analytics (with stats on local searches included), I've been kind of looking into the subject. So the article by Alka Bhatnagar in Online magazine called "Web Analytics for Business Intelligence: Beyond Hits and Sessions" was my first pick. Then as an acknowledge of what I feel are significant findings, I also listed the Berkman Center broadband study.
