Another graffiti picked up around the library. This one is a bit more surrealist.
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Author: griffey
Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.
Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.
He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.
Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.
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Arrrr!
Today be th’ official Talk Like a Pirate Day. If’n ya be a scurvy dog n’ want to read th’ blog as it’s meant to be read, you can read the translation here. This is also the grand high holy day of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, be ye touched by his noodly appendage.
Avast! I’ve been re-christened with my true pirate name! What’s yours?
My pirate name is:
Dread Pirate Flint
Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you’re hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you’re easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!
For more pirate goodness: the Flickr tag for pirate.
Arrr!
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Graffiti No. 1
I’ve decided to start blogging the more interesting images that I find around me. My Razr has come in terrifically handy for capturing my favorites…mostly graffiti and signs that I find interesting/humorous/both.
Here’s one from my library, from one of the men’s restrooms.
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Katrina: The Gathering
Just funny, funny stuff (at least for us game geeks) from Broken Toys:
Katrina: The Gathering
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LibraryThing
Aside from the not-so-hip title (seriously guys…LibraryThing?) and the needs-prettier-interface/UI, the tool itself rocks like Dokken.
There are a few things I’d like to see happen with it, though (listen up, developers!): one, you need geographical information, or at least the ability to form groups so that you can keep track of who around you has what books. Second, you need the ability to check in/check out books to other users, with email ticklers for returning. Third, you need to be able to sort by some shelving order (ie: I shelf mine alphabetically, so sort that way, OR if I want to go full on Library of Congress, give me a shelving order for that).
That said, it’s a cool tool I expect I will play with. It also imports Delicious Library files, which is nifty.
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Google University
Google launched a new “platform” page today, with Google University. Some of the interesting things about it: this is the first time that I’ve seen Google launch a page that simply collects their services for a certain demographic without adding any new services and this is the first time that someone can simply sign up for a Gmail account without and invite or a cell phone (although it does appear that the secondary account has to be from a .edu). Even more interesting to me is the order in which they’ve decided to present their services: all of the communication services (Gmail and Google Talk) first, mobile search (Google SMS, which rocks my face off), maps, and only then do we get down to Google Scholar, the only real search system of the bunch.
It says a lot about Google’s growth that they present a search engine 5th.
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Quick update
Crazy busy week ahead of me, and it only just started.
Taught my first ENGL 121 class today..the first of what will be dozens, I’m sure. It’s one of our core classes for library instruction. Went ok, if not great. The students didn’t have any clue about topics (which I had hoped they would) and 90% of them had never even been inside the library before (which I had hoped they would). Next time I’ll ratchet my expectations down and it’ll go fine.
If anyone is interested, here’s the slides for my basic library discussion I did with the ENGL 121 class.
We are finally in the new house, and can (mostly) relax a bit. The move was difficult, not because of distance, but because we are both so busy and the details so hard to keep up with. For the first month of trying to buy the house, it was financial stuff….getting stuff together for the mortgage officer, finding the right loan combination, making sure our credit scores were good, checking all the numbers again and again and again. Then came the approval, and we moved into prep mode: changing addresses, updating online accounts (do you have any idea how many online accounts I updated? Amazon, Netflix, online banking, Paypal, Ebay…and a ton I don’t remember yet, probably), changing over utilities (gas, water, electricity, cable, phone) making sure that all of them are done on time, house appraisal, insurance coverage…so much stuff!
That’s not counting the actual packing.
Then we decided that we were going to paint two rooms in the house before we moved things into it. Which gave us more or less 48 hours or so to get in, prep, paint, and let it dry before we started hauling things in. Then this past weekend came the moving…boxes and boxes and boxes of things, furniture, all while trying not to destroy the new paint jobs in the two rooms. And while trying to keep the pets happy.
Lets just say that the last few months have been….stressful.
But now it’s mostly over, and we’re in the new house, and it’s wonderful. The house itself is amazing. I’m just looking forward to the day when we can both come home, sit on the couch, and relax for a bit.
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Apple does it again
Just a ton of news coming out of Apple today…top of the list:
Wow. It’s beautiful, tiny, and has a color screen. I’m impressed again by the amount of detail that Apple puts into it’s products.
More from Apple: iTunes 5, The Motorola ROKR iTunes phone, and a limited edition Harry Potter iPod!
Apple just keeps doing things right.
In the midst of the insanity in NOLA and the gulf coast, and trying to keep up with all that news, Betsy and I have finally bought and moved into our new house!
It was a busy couple of days, but we’re 99% in. I’m heading to the old house today to pick up the last few items, and to sweep the place out. After that, we’ll officially be in the new house. Pictures will follow as soon as we get unpacked.