Library Stuff

For that librarian on your gift list:

2nd Draft Recycled Microfilm Accessories
Yes, that's right, Microfilm Bling!

From Molly at LU.

Jenna Freedman just sent this to the LU list, and I couldn't stop laughing.

This has been making the rounds via email:

More than half of the systems responsible for managing the nearly 17 million titles in the Library of Congress catalog have tested positive for prohibited "performance enhancing" content, according to an Inspector General's report expected to be published next month.

In a public statement issued by the IG, he stated that "The use of taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and other performance enhancing content often referred to under the catchall term 'metadata' has long been suspected by Library fans. For much too long, Library owners have simply turned a blind eye, choosing not to question how their high-priced key assets had been able to break one long-standing performance record after another. As long as they were seeing the performance, nobody wanted to question or acknowledge how it was being achieved."

The investigation was triggered by anonymous tips and overheard conversations between certain unnamed staff members alluding to "a card catalog on steroids."

continued...

[From Jenna] I thought it needed a home on the web, and so posted it, with permission http://jenna.openflows.com/loc/steroidscandal

My friend Erica sent this along:

From PW ShelfAwareness 12.14:

Sadly Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, as he stated online yesterday. He added: "We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)"

The Hennepin County and Minneapolis Library System will now merge. This should solve a host of problems for the Mpls system, which was in major need. I know my friends in the Twin Cities are looking forward to branches reopening or restoring cut hours.

Well, sorta. I got mention in this month's American Libraries (p.29 if you're interested) for some work I'm doing over at MaintainIT.org. Of course, the one bit they chose to pull out as the teaser isn't actually what I said...

Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal has weighed in on Amazon's Kindle:

Amazon's Kindle Makes Buying E-Books Easy, Reading Them Hard

I've been testing the Kindle for about a week, and I love the shopping and downloading experience. But the Kindle device itself is just mediocre. While it has good readability, battery life and storage capacity, both its hardware design and its software user interface are marred by annoying flaws. It is bigger and clunkier to use than the Sony Reader, whose second version has just come out at $300.

Like the Sony, the Amazon reader uses a high-contrast, but low-power, screen technology. The Kindle's six-inch screen can display only monochrome text and gray images, and there's lag time and a flash of black every time you turn a page. But I did find that the screen was good enough to make me forget I wasn't reading the book on paper.

The software interface also is clumsy. There is no way to organize titles into groups or categories, so you have to keep turning pages in the Home area to find a particular item to read. And doing many tasks requires you to scroll a barely visible silver cursor along a narrow side panel.

...Amazon has nailed the electronic-book shopping experience. But it has a lot to learn about designing electronic devices.

Well, for bibliophiles anyways:

100 Notable Books of 2007

My latest book recommendation: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon (his Yiddish Policemen's Union is on the Notable list). He takes a time and place - approx. 950 CE in the Caucasus Mountains - with which I'm not very familiar and weaves a heck of a yarn. Great characters and a beautifully produced book which feels much like one of those late Victorian adventure dramas.