Fighting through the decline

  • Does Piracy Impact Sales? Just like libraries?

    RECORDS, a photo by kendrak on Flickr. People have been saying piracy is killing the music industry. Sorry Lars, but the RIAA is killing the music industry. Remember – innovate or die. It’s just like ebooks! Here’s something new linked from ebook primer: “Does Piracy Impact Sales? Not How You Might Think!”. It discuses a…

  • Tweetable RDA Rules

    Confession: I think we need to think beyond catalogs and cataloging. So I get tired when people try to get me to care about RDA but use super old school cataloging terms, talking about obstacles for their workflow and not focusing on how it’s going to impact users or why we should care. That’s not…

  • Amoeba’s Vinyl Vault – A Sticky situation of copyright, licensing, and “orphan” works

    records, originally uploaded by mohawk. You know I can stop reading and writing about the music industry. It’s sort of insnae and a decent cautionary tale for other forms of publishing, like print and scholarly. It doesn’t hurt that I love records. One of my favourite ways to spend lunch is hanging out at Amoeba…

  • Make your message clear for all or don’t bother.

    Euston Square Underground station, originally uploaded by bowroaduk. Transportation signage is often pretty good because it has to be. People need to get from A to B without crashing or getting lost. Some agencies, like Transport for London and the New York MTA, have really made signage an art form. Here’s an old sign from…

  • Librarians as Faculty? It’s a Red Herring.

    Faculty, 1893, originally uploaded by Michigan State University Archives. The “academic librarians as faculty” debate has been swirling the internet this month. The discussion was renewed by the change in status of librarians at the University of Virginia and East Carolina University which was met with protests. There have been thoughtful responses on both sides…