New Yorker iPad App

After months of patiently waiting and hoping... The New Yorker iPad app has finally arrived! It even includes a great intro video:

How to Open a New Book

This has been floating around the internet for a while, and I'd like to share with you some thoughts about the image and why it has such interest now. First, though, here's the graphic:

Death of the Inscription?

On Wednesday, I was reading this Times article:

Book Inscriptions Reflect Personal Histories, by Susan Dominus

In the article, Dominus highlights the idea that the inscription could go away if our society completely embraces digital books, and abandons physical books. She was thinking specifically about personal inscriptions - when one writes a note to a friend on the occasion of giving them the book, for example. I’d like to think of this in a bit different context: when the author signs or inscribes the book.

Both in our personal collection, as well as the collection of the Amon Carter, there are many signed books. One of the best I have seen at the Carter was a book about the photographs of Ansel Adams, inscribed to Laura Gilpin, describing her as a “very great lady of photography,” and it had a cool little doodle as well. (The Carter has the book as Gilpin donated her papers, prints, negatives, and library to the Carter on her passing.) We have several (12, I think) signed books, and they are among our favorites. How does one get the author to sign your e-book? Do they sign the reader? Type a note into the document?

I know it’s not exactly the most earth-shattering concept, but it is one that is important to me, as well as to many other folks out there. Would you miss inscriptions?

Yale Library Studies

Among the books I read last month, I completed the annual issue of Yale Library Studies. As it dealt with library design and architecture, my interest was especially piqued to read the issue, and I was not disappointed. Wonderfully illustrated, with many great articles, the issue had a great deal to offer. Over the coming weeks, I will discuss with you some of the things I took from my reading of the issue, but for now, allow me to leave you with this quote which I feel is applicable to all libraries:

A question that has exercised more than one University Librarian, however, is how far that truth so evident in stone and metal and wood manifests itself in the interior life of Yale. To what extent do the Library's many buildings embody the ideals and aspirations of the University? Do the scholars and students who use these buildings find in them not just the books and collections but also the environment the need to help them teach and study and learn? And what, in a twenty-first century library system, is the relationship between the virtual environment found on the computer or handheld device and the physical built environment?

I know I already posted this, but I would like to hear your thoughts before I move forward!

Yale Library Studies

Reader,

Thanks for bearing with me - the end of the semester has passed, and my work is all turned in. It’s nice to get positive feedback on tasks which required a great deal of work. More on that later.

For now, I want to share with you that I am reading the 2009 issue of Yale Library Studies. This issue examines library architecture at Yale, and more broadly library architecture in general. Expect to see some design related library posts soon. Here’s a snippet:

To what extent do the Library's many buildings embody the ideals and aspirations of the University? Do the scholars and students who use these buildings find in them not just the books and collections but also the environment the need to help them teach and study and learn? And what, in a twenty-first century library system, is the relationship between the virtual environment found on the computer or handheld device and the physical built environment?

How would you answer those questions?

Paper Records

Interesting fact...

...and interesting comments.  Check it out! 



What do you think about electronic medical records?

New Fun Photos from the Library of Congress

One of the most interesting things that the Library of Congress has been up to over the past few months is their Flickr uploads. Their most recent uploads from the New York Herald are wonderful, and I’ll share some of my favorites below. Here’s a link to their photostream, where all these images come from:

Library of Congress’ Flickr Photostream

Have a great weekend!! (PS - These images have no copyright!)

Don’t Fear the e-reader

I read this very interesting article yesterday about e-readers, and I wanted to pass it along to you all:

Don’t Fear the e-reader, by Heather Michon

Top 10 Things That Are Being Killed Off By Digitalization

One of the most interesting library-related lists I have seen recently is this list:

Top 10 Things That Are Being Killed Off By Digitalization, by Richard.

That’s all I have today - you might also want to look at the discussion in the comments beneath that post - some good thoughts there. What do you think is being killed off by digitalization?

Libraries and the Internet

Yesterday morning Josh Montgomery and I had a good discussion about the changing nature of both libraries and the internet. It started off with this thought from Josh:

The Internet > Libraries

Which led to a wide-ranging discussion about those two topics. They are frequently seen as mutually exclusive, like they are engaged in some sort of death match for information supremacy. I see this as not valid. I see the two entities as mutually beneficial. Both serve different, but fundamentally linked purposes.

The internet has become the de facto repository for much of the information that is produced by mankind in this age we live in. The ease of adding content to the internet is unrivaled, and couple that to the relative ease of sharing that information makes the internet the transforming hurricane of information that it has become. As a matter of fact, allow me to share with you a graphic I saw recently that puts the amount of information available on the internet in perspective:


Source: Mozy.

Yes, libraries have traditionally been repositories for information, but this too is changing. I think libraries, as well as librarians need to respect this new schema for information creation and sharing, as it is what the user has deemed best. But what is it that will make libraries stand out and apart from the internet in this information age? Service.

I feel sure that you, good reader, find the amount of information available on the internet bewildering, and maybe even a little frustrating. It’s ok, you are not alone. One way in which libraries can and are staying relevant in this information age is helping users filter out information they don’t need, or want, from their internet usage. For libraries and librarians totally ignored the internet would be unethical, and a terrible disservice to the patrons and users of the library. However, librarians have the skills to help individuals search the internet more effectively, and discover the “good” information they desire. Beyond that, libraries grant their patrons access to paid electronic databases that patrons could never afford on their own. These databases contain amazing amounts of data, but the search methods are all different, requiring the skills of a librarian.

Let me say it like this: The reason for the existence of libraries in this information age is not buildings, not books, and not even internet access. The reason why libraries are more relevant than ever before is the skills and services that librarians provide.

Allow me to provide you with a hypothetical example. When you search for something in Google, do you always find exactly what it is that you are looking for? Are the recommendations that Amazon makes for you to purchase always accurate and exactly what you want?

I would say no to this question.

Why is it that these methods of recommendations or information searching/discovery are flawed? Well, there are a couple of reasons why, I think. First, these systems are machines. They are not empathetic, they cannot ask detailed questions, and they do not have experience and a skillset to bring to bear on a problem. All they do is run rankings, track usage, and perform algorithms. Helpful as these may be (and I would say they are helpful, but not optimal) they do not take the place of a librarian in a reference interview, or doing reader’s advisory. Another reason why these machine run tools are less than optimally effective is that they serve a different purpose? What is the fundamental purpose of Google? To make money through advertising. The search tool is simply how they deliver that advertising. What is the problem with Amazon? Well, they sell books, CD’s, and movies - the traditional fare of libraries. But they also sell rakes. Amazon cannot focus on information needs like a librarian can. They, also, want to make money - but don’t really care how. It could be from a book, or some cosmetics.

I’ll refine my point a bit: Libraries are significant and important in this age because of the personal, human information services it provides.

As I mentioned above, libraries have books and other “information containers” as well - and internet search engines are terrible as searching this bibliographic data. There are systems online to effectively search this data - but they are designed, and the information maintained by who? Librarians.

Ok, so I feel like I am rambling a bit here, so let me sum up and move on. The internet is a great way to create, store, and share information of all kinds, good and bad. The internet is essential to our daily lives. But, the internet is not greater or better than libraries. The two support one another, with the internet providing a massive information resource and libraries providing the services and skills to navigate this massive amount of information. And the information in libraries includes not only electronic information, but also information in books, periodicals, music, and archives, most of which is not available online.

Near the end of our conversation, Josh asked me a question:
“If you had to destroy the internet or libraries, which would you destroy?”

I would destroy neither, if at all possible. However, if forced to choose, I would destroy the internet, because without libraries, I would be out of a job! I know that’s a bit selfish, so let me give you a better reason. The services the internet provides are replaceable, but the services libraries provide are not.

All of these thoughts are a great segue into tomorrow’s topic: How have libraries evolved over time? I’ll pick up some threads of this topic tomorrow as I talk about web 2.0 technologies and a new field/idea called Participatory Librarianship.

Good reader, if you made it through this post - give yourself a gold star!

- Jason Dean

Digitization and Libraries

Recently, I read a Wall Street Journal article online about one aspect of one of the major trends in Library Science today: digitization of manuscripts. There is a wide-ranging debate about this topic in Library Science fields, and I will try to give you a brief description of the situation.

Much like any debate, there are two sides. On one side, you have the group of people that say that digitization of books, etc. in libraries is bad, and perhaps even illegal. It could be illegal because of the copyright laws involved, and how libraries control the digital copies of their work. Also, some people say that there is some inherent quality to researching in a more old-fashioned way - using indices, etc to get what you need from a text. Google recently ran into many of the anti-digitization arguments when it announced that it would pair with Stanford University and “publish” digitized works online. If you would like a nice summation of the anti-digitization arguments, click on through to this link.

On the other side of the debate are the proponents for digitization. These folks say that digitization will better preserve the materials in libraries, while reducing physical space of the collection. Especially important to digitization, and also what the WSJ article was about, was the digitization (scanning) of rare and fragile works in order to preserve them. I think this is the best use for scanning - to preserve books, etc. in a readable format - before they disappear altogether. We can preserve some great and important works for future generations - even when the work has a limited physical lifetime.

But, nothing will ever replace holding a fine book in your hand - not even Amazon’s Kindle.