Holidays

Readers, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. Jen and I did - and we are now back and ready to finish up the year. I have a few projects for school to wrap up, and so The Dean Files postings by me might not be quite what they have been, and I apologize for that. Stick around, as things will get better!

Social Media Tools and Libraries

It's Friday - and I'd just like to share a presentation with you. Uber-librarian Jessamyn West recently gave a talk about social media tools and libraries, titled The Mayor of Everywhere: Using Social Tools to Be More Places at Once. I think it's a great talk, and if you click through this link here, you'll go right to the talk. What do you think about it? Have a great weekend!

200 Million Records

In the latest issue of C&RL News (Nov. 2010), there were a few things of note for me. First, if you are going to put a QR code on your cover, please don't cover it up with an address label! Second, Erin Dorney, young librarian extraordinaire, had another great Job of a Lifetime article - so cool!

An eBook Epiphany...

I felt as though I had an epiphany yesterday about eBooks. Someone else has probably had this thought before - I just haven't seen it. Anyhow - here it is:

A Catalog Mashup Idea

I was cataloging a book about the Hudson River school yesterday, and as I examined the record, I wondered to myself what purpose the 043 fields in a MARC record serve. I know they "have" to be there when you have a 651 field. Before I go further, allow me to explain myself a bit.

In the Year 3000...

It's Thursday, and for me the semester is beginning to wind down. There's been a lot to do, especially in my digital libraries course. One of the things that keeps me centered in this whole digital libraries movement and my education in it is this image, a cover by Dan Clowes for The New Yorker:

The Kimbell

The Kimbell Art Museum here in Fort Worth recently broke ground on their Renzo Piano addition - something that has been a long time coming. I want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from the American artist (and one of my favorites) Donald Judd about the original Louis Kahn building, as well as some images from the original construction and some images I took this week during the initial phases of construction on the Piano building.