Librarianship, current interests
I am trying to actually stay aware and up-to-date with the new wave of library interests. Unfortunately, there is so much to keep up with that I can only touch the tip of the iceberg. But here is my attempt to actually get a grip on the major topics of librarianship, especially those that comment on the relationships of new technology and how libraries use it.
Source of library literature
- Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki - Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
- Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
- E-LIS - Welcome to Eprints for LIS
- free library literature
- search liblogs
- search engine for biblioblogs
- Five Weeks To A Social Library | The first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software
- social network class with freely shared coursework
Future of Cataloging
what is happening to cataloguers?
discussions of theory and practice in cataloguing
- notes to read
- About the Working Group
- notes from Mark Lindner
- About the Working Group
- Bade statement
- someone's stuff to read regarding series
look up more by him if possible
Documents of importance
on what is going on in cataloguing
things to read or keep an eye on
- Calhoun report
- I've read it and I'm not pleased with its ideas, plus I think that many of its premises are faulty.
- T. Mann's counter to the Calhoun report
- Extremely valid criticisms, but still sometimes extremist. I wonder if he is expressing himself so intensely in reaction to the radical nature of her suggestions.
- BSTF report
- I've heard lots about this -- radical ideas for bibliographic control from California. I need to read.
- Indiana's take on bibliographic control
- This looks like another one that might be worth reading.
- T. Mann's comments on searching
- I agree with much of what he says. Though I do think he is sometimes extremist in how he expresses himself.
- Library Systems: Synthesise, Specialise, Mobilise
- Need to read this one.
- The Library Catalogue in the New Discovery Environment: Some Thoughts
- I sometimes find his blog hard to follow. Maybe reading this will give me greater context.
Lorcan Dempsey explores how the library catalogue will develop alongside evolving network discovery systems.
New books to look at
For truly current topics, books aren't really going to be a primary source, but there are some that are responding to the new waves of information that I need to look at.
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 12/02/2008) 
Open Access issues
something I know Very Little about
- newsletter to follow: http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/soan.html
Meditations on cataloguing
how are we changing?
There is too much inside my head about the work I do to limit it easily, but I would like to start with some basic premises that are foundational to what I do:
1. Books and other printed material are not going to go away. Regardless of the growing importance of electronic resources, there will always be books to catalog.
2. Until there is an electronic text to work from, you will always need a human intermediary to catalog the book so it can be found again.
3. Even with an electronic text to work from, a computer cannot catalog the subject for you. Until you have an artificial intelligence as good as the human brain, there is not replacement.
4. MARC has its faults, but I've yet to hear of anything better. And many of its faults are, I believe, correctable.
5. Authorized vocabulary for subject description is always going to be necessary. Keyword searching does a lot, but it does not do it all.
1. Books and other printed material are not going to go away. Regardless of the growing importance of electronic resources, there will always be books to catalog.
2. Until there is an electronic text to work from, you will always need a human intermediary to catalog the book so it can be found again.
3. Even with an electronic text to work from, a computer cannot catalog the subject for you. Until you have an artificial intelligence as good as the human brain, there is not replacement.
4. MARC has its faults, but I've yet to hear of anything better. And many of its faults are, I believe, correctable.
5. Authorized vocabulary for subject description is always going to be necessary. Keyword searching does a lot, but it does not do it all.
