Some kids have never even used a card catalogue. I never really liked them. I'm short and I was a short kid and the upper drawers were always annoying. Now there's a huge surplus of the cards. Librarians at the University of South Carolina are opening a contest to see what people can make with the obsolete cards.
I'd love to see some flip books, if the cards aren't too stiff for that. I made a couple in dictionaries when I was a kid. It might be cool to try again with more complex pictures. And I'd use catalogue cards as bookmarks. I have an old sign-out library card I'm using as a bookmark currently.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Multnomah County's Library Steps up Security
Apparently Multnomah County's library books haven't had any sort of security system in them for almost thirteen years. Wow.
The county has decided to install Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the library books and hope to have the task completed by then end of 2010. At first I thought the library didn't have any system, but supposedly they just turned what they did have off when there were too many false alarms.
How many false alarms make you turn off security gates? For a while, I couldn't go into a local pharmacy in a certain pair of jeans because they would make the gate alarms go off. That bad?
Here is some info in the article regarding RFID that I found helpful:
Learning is fun.
The county has decided to install Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the library books and hope to have the task completed by then end of 2010. At first I thought the library didn't have any system, but supposedly they just turned what they did have off when there were too many false alarms.
The move comes four years after a police officer discovered hundreds of stolen library CDs and DVDs at a patron's home and the public learned that staff annoyed by repeated false alarms had turned off the few security gates that existed in library branches. The discovery led to a study of library security released two years later that showed massive annual losses.
How many false alarms make you turn off security gates? For a while, I couldn't go into a local pharmacy in a certain pair of jeans because they would make the gate alarms go off. That bad?
Here is some info in the article regarding RFID that I found helpful:
RFIDs are small devices about the size of a nametag sticker that adhere to books, CDs and the other materials. They've been gaining popularity among libraries nationwide for the last five years and have been used in libraries in Europe even longer.
The tags store and retrieve data and contain antennas that enable them to respond to radio-frequency queries. They can't be removed from items without damaging them and will trigger an alarm at the door if the item isn't checked out.
RFIDs are favored because they're much more accurate than the magnetic strip systems often used by libraries.
Learning is fun.
Racy Sex Guides in the Ottawa Library
Courtesy of my course instructor: Ottawa Library Defends Addition of Racy Sex Guides. Go, Barbara Clubb, go! Apparently a couple emailed the library about the books, saying that they were 'pornography veiled as instruction' and 'harmful to children'.
Should kids be reading these books? Well, no. Again, adult supervision is still a good thing in my opinion. A seven year old does not need to see 'colour photos, illustrations and diagrams' of oral sex. Neither does a thirteen year old, honestly, but it's not like they can't look that up on the internet and really I'd rather they get it from legitimate sources that encouraged safe sexual practices. I really wish that sort of thing wasn't of interest to kids beyond the what's-that-curiosity we all had. Seems like kids are getting into sex younger and younger these days, but honestly it's been happening for a long while. I have to wonder if a guide to oral sex would deter a few teenage pregnancies.
Should kids be reading these books? Well, no. Again, adult supervision is still a good thing in my opinion. A seven year old does not need to see 'colour photos, illustrations and diagrams' of oral sex. Neither does a thirteen year old, honestly, but it's not like they can't look that up on the internet and really I'd rather they get it from legitimate sources that encouraged safe sexual practices. I really wish that sort of thing wasn't of interest to kids beyond the what's-that-curiosity we all had. Seems like kids are getting into sex younger and younger these days, but honestly it's been happening for a long while. I have to wonder if a guide to oral sex would deter a few teenage pregnancies.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Hitler Loves Cushing and E-Books
More about Cushing! I previously mentioned it in my first real post in September.
Sounds like things went pretty much how I thought they would, except the thing where people compare the headmaster James Tracy to Hitler. I really should have seen that coming, though. Has fifteen years on the internet taught me nothing? People love bringing Hitler into any argument. Any argument. Back in 1990, a guy named Mike Godwin said, "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." Voila, Godwin's Law.
Here is an example from the article, taken from a blog at parentdish.com*:
Contrary to the impression given back in September ("When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books"), James Tracy now says:
Scrolls are okay! Just not for research, which he says was what he was talking about. As for reducing his library staff, apparently that's not true:
Not all the students love it. There's a comment by one student about giving people coffee in a library, and another about how annoying using an e-book version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was to take notes on.
While Kindles themselves are expensive, the books are less so:
That's a pretty good deal.
More Hitler comparisons, from Paul Biba at TeleRead, who got it from someone named Danny Bloom: Amazing Luddite protest against ebooks. I saw this a while ago but was too astounded to comment or quote. If it's okay for Paul Biba, it's okay for me. Here is the Hitler reference in an essay, Protecting the Printed Word, by author by Alan Kaufman:
Surely book concentration camps are just around the corner. Sure, guy.
* No link for you. Look it up on your own!
Sounds like things went pretty much how I thought they would, except the thing where people compare the headmaster James Tracy to Hitler. I really should have seen that coming, though. Has fifteen years on the internet taught me nothing? People love bringing Hitler into any argument. Any argument. Back in 1990, a guy named Mike Godwin said, "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." Voila, Godwin's Law.
Here is an example from the article, taken from a blog at parentdish.com*:
"Save the books, fire the instigator of the book-burning. Let Hitler stay dead."
Contrary to the impression given back in September ("When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books"), James Tracy now says:
"If I look out the window and I see a student reading Chaucer, to me it's utterly immaterial whether it's a paperback or a Kindle. I'm just glad that they're reading Chaucer."
Scrolls are okay! Just not for research, which he says was what he was talking about. As for reducing his library staff, apparently that's not true:
Actually, he says, he has hired more librarians to help students navigate the electronic stacks and tell "what is valuable information or reliable from what is junk."
Not all the students love it. There's a comment by one student about giving people coffee in a library, and another about how annoying using an e-book version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was to take notes on.
While Kindles themselves are expensive, the books are less so:
Corbett [Tom Corbett, Cushing's director of Media and Academic Technology] says he can purchase many e-titles much more cheaply than traditional books. Often he pays just $5 apiece, so for the price of a $30 hardback, he now orders six e-books.
That's a pretty good deal.
More Hitler comparisons, from Paul Biba at TeleRead, who got it from someone named Danny Bloom: Amazing Luddite protest against ebooks. I saw this a while ago but was too astounded to comment or quote. If it's okay for Paul Biba, it's okay for me. Here is the Hitler reference in an essay, Protecting the Printed Word, by author by Alan Kaufman:
Which teen or twenty something in their right mind is going to opt for paper over electronic texts? No one of course. That's just the way of evolution, goes the narrative. Publishers and readers, writers and agents, are well-advised to get with this truth or perish. As to the bookstore, it is like the synagogue under Hitler: the house of a doomed religion. And the paper book is its Torah and gravestone: a thing to burn, or use to pave the road to internet heaven.
Surely book concentration camps are just around the corner. Sure, guy.
* No link for you. Look it up on your own!
Someone Plus Black Marker Equals Censoring
A library in Tennessee has a problem with censorship: someone is taking black marker and crossing out bad words.
Well, at least they're enterprising - at least, if it's just one person. One book at a time, they eliminate questionable words, like some kind of really crappy superhero. Thank you for protecting the rest of us from foul language!
How would you catch the person doing that? Are the books being checked out? If so, can an account be flagged as suspicious?
Well, at least they're enterprising - at least, if it's just one person. One book at a time, they eliminate questionable words, like some kind of really crappy superhero. Thank you for protecting the rest of us from foul language!
How would you catch the person doing that? Are the books being checked out? If so, can an account be flagged as suspicious?
Monday, October 26, 2009
League of Extraordinary Porn
Two librarians in Nicholasville were fired for not giving a twelve-year old a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel. They felt it was 'filthy' and pornographic because the books 'contain lewd pictures of men and women in sexual situations that are inappropriate for children.' That doesn't really sound like porn. Porn's a pretty hefty word to sling about.
Well... yes. Of course it lies* with the parents. Just like with TV and movies. Was firing the librarians really appropriate? Could they have gone with a slap on the wrist? Was something stopping them from asking the girl if she could bring a parent or guardian to speak to them?
* Lyes? Time for a new copy editor.
The Jessamine County Library director says it's against their policy to speak about employee terminations but he did give me a copy of their policy and it clearly states the responsibilities of the child's reading must lye with the parents and not with the library.
Well... yes. Of course it lies* with the parents. Just like with TV and movies. Was firing the librarians really appropriate? Could they have gone with a slap on the wrist? Was something stopping them from asking the girl if she could bring a parent or guardian to speak to them?
* Lyes? Time for a new copy editor.
The Siren Call of Infinite Knowledge
Peggy Orenstein wrote an article about an app that blocks internet for up to eight hours. At first I dismissed this article - I'm pretty tired of stories of people who can't exert enough self-control that they need a program to cut them off from the internet (which you can get around by simply rebooting, deemed 'humiliating'... come on). Further into the article, 'The Odyssey' was mentioned... specifically for Ulysses having to bind himself to the mast of his ship when encountering the sirens because he was helpless otherwise. Again with the helpless. Despite it being on my shelf, I haven't read The Odyssey (BAD librarian, NO COOKIE), and until now I always thought the sirens were tempting with nookie.
I will admit to having lost quite a few hours to the endless links of the internet, the thing is the internet and its endless information is still there when I go away. I can pick up right where I've left off. Another point the article makes is that the internet isn't unending knowledge, it's unending information.
What's the difference between knowledge and information? Is knowledge the result of really thinking about information? Is it the practice of studying it instead of letting it all wash right over, in one ear and out the other? I'm not sure a library is so different from the internet that way. It's harder to be distracted by leaps away from the original subject at least. Physical books aren't linked together by the twitch of an index finger on a mouse button.
Still, I think that it's still up to the user to exert self-control. No one is helpless to the internet; there are such things, as with real books, as bookmarks, logging off and putting the book aside, page marked for later. I feel more obligated to read a physical book all the way through if I read just a part of it, but I don't so much have that problem with the internet.
Those mythical bird-women (look it up) didn’t seduce with beauty or carnality — not with petty diversions — but with the promise of unending knowledge. “Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens,” they crooned to passing ships, vowing that any sailor who heeded their voices would emerge a “wiser man.” That is precisely the draw of the Internet.
I will admit to having lost quite a few hours to the endless links of the internet, the thing is the internet and its endless information is still there when I go away. I can pick up right where I've left off. Another point the article makes is that the internet isn't unending knowledge, it's unending information.
What's the difference between knowledge and information? Is knowledge the result of really thinking about information? Is it the practice of studying it instead of letting it all wash right over, in one ear and out the other? I'm not sure a library is so different from the internet that way. It's harder to be distracted by leaps away from the original subject at least. Physical books aren't linked together by the twitch of an index finger on a mouse button.
Still, I think that it's still up to the user to exert self-control. No one is helpless to the internet; there are such things, as with real books, as bookmarks, logging off and putting the book aside, page marked for later. I feel more obligated to read a physical book all the way through if I read just a part of it, but I don't so much have that problem with the internet.
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