Category: Observations

  • Data.Gov — transparency overload, PR move, tool.

    FBI DATA REELS (UN-Classified) and unreadable to me!, originally uploaded by spike55151. The SLA Gov Info division posted this morning a link to a Harvard Business School case study, Data.Gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation. (There’s a free copy of the study for government employees linked on the DGI blog.) It’s a good read…

  • What kills libraries? Governments.

    Universitätsbibliothek in Löwen / University library of Leuven, originally uploaded by Curnen. This is the Universiteitsbibliotheek in Leuven. It was a casualty of both World Wars. In 1914 the Germans destroyed the city after they were duped into thinking there was an Allied onslaught on the way. Article 247 of the Treaty of Versailles dictates…

  • What I took home from #intlib10: Failure

    Fail! Learn! Share!, originally uploaded by Librarian by Day. It’s been less than a week since I got back from Internet Librarian, or #intlib10, and all I can think about is the collective failure of libraries and librarians, and our collective failure to admit, accept, and discuss such failures. I think that’s part of the…

  • Open Access Week isn’t the worldwide party… yet…

    OA cake 3, originally uploaded by Paul Stainthorp. Last week LibPunk Radio discussed Open Access Week as only two people tangentially involved with it all can. I’m sort of ambivalent about the whole thing, but it’s mostly because right now I don’t think libraries are in a position to do much other than talk about…

  • Becoming your subject: Thoughts I had on my bike ride to the doctors.

    minor repairs, originally uploaded by neal..patel. I am a transportation librarian, which isn’t really news to anybody anymore. (Or it shouldn’t be…) It’s a very narrow view of the world. Everything can be tied back to transportation. Economics? Engineering? Planning? The environment? Politics? History? Art? Seriously, my brain has a knack to make it all…