My literature surveillance includes the Annoyed Librarian, written for Library Journal by a pseudonymous blogger. This blog is a careless diatribe and the comments that accompany each post are often worse. I don’t like it.1 Nonetheless, I scan every article and most of the comments—and gather lots of other people do too. In late 2007,
◊ Change Management ◊
In the library with the lead pipe
Over the past few months, I’ve followed more than a dozen library blogs to develop my blogging acumen and learn about libraries. I’ve been hoping to find librarians who use blogs to unleash their curiosity and expression, demonstrate scholarship, critical thinking, library advocacy and activism, and extend the medium. Eureka — I came into the
If we don’t, our competitors will
The following lines from a media industry report caught my attention: Our current format is limiting. There is unrealized value at the intersection of community and content. We are uniquely suited to be stewards of this interaction. If we don’t tap into this value—our competitors will. Last month’s series on Being Better Than Free may
Vision needed asap
I’ve come to believe the library industry is profoundly fragmented and suffers from a lack of vision. Helene Blowers’ comments strengthened this impression and emphatic calls this month from Carl Grant, president of Ex Libris North America have validated it, sadly. In Libraries; A Silence That Is Deafening, Grant writes I think we librarians are
Curators and digital docents
In a recent post, Kent Anderson of the Scholarly Kitchen differentiates the roles of curator and docent. He observes that “Scholarly publishers are very experienced curators — collecting, preserving, and archiving interesting research. We aren’t especially adept or confident docents. We usually only point to what we own.” Hmmm… Digital docents are emerging everywhere. With
Difficult, inspiring change
Michael Edson, March 2009 War, famine and road construction can come and go, but don’t mess with a library. …Change is inevitable and anxiety ridden. It is also exciting and rich with possibilities! From Change: the only constant!, Practical Librarian, May 2009. You change because what you do for a living was never just a
Being BTF: findability & patronage
Findability: … a work has no value unless it is seen; unfound masterpieces are worthless. When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention—and most of it free—being found is valuable. Patronage: Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with
Being BTF: accessibility & embodiment
Accessibility: ownership often [stinks]. You have to keep your things tidy, up-to-date, and in the case of digital material, backed up. Many people, me included, will be happy to have others tend our “possessions”. Embodiment: The music is free—the bodily performance expensive. From Better than Free by Kevin Kelly. This week I’ve used the work
Being BTF: interpretation & authenticity
Interpretation: The copy of code, being mere bits, is free—and becomes valuable to you only through the support and guidance. Authenticity: You might be able to grab a key software application for free, but even if you don’t need a manual, you might like to be sure it is bug free, reliable, and warranted. From
Being BTF: immediacy & personalization
As a sellable quality, immediacy has many levels. [It] has to fit with the product and the audience. Personalization requires an ongoing conversation between the creator and consumer, artist and fan, producer and user. It is deeply generative because it is iterative and time consuming. You can’t copy the personalization that a relationship represents. From
