In case anyone has missed this, the so-new-it-still-sparkles LITA blog is full of some amazing ALA conference coverage. KGS covers the Obama keynote and makes me wish I were there.
If the blog keeps up this level of use/writing, it’s going to be around for a long time.
As Anna pointed out in a comment to my previous post, perhaps I wasn’t as informative as I could have been in what sorts of lists I’m looking for. Here’s a short summary of my interests/responsibilities:
There’s a short list of things I feel like a want to keep up with. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a sample. Thanks for any suggestions!
Ok all you guys out there in Library Land: what listservs do you consider to be A) the best and B) must subscribes? I’m going through my lists, and there seems to be more and more and more out there, so I know I’m missing a few that I could be either entertained by or helpful on.
Leave me comments on your favs (with subscription info if possible).
Thanks!
First day at UT – Chattanooga! (thanks Yeri!)
Just thought everyone should know. 🙂
More thoughts on the library, the job, etc…later. For now, I’m off to a class.
This latest post from Jeff Pomerantz is just briliant. In it, he discusses the oft-repeated falsehood that in order for writing to be of value it must be edited/peer reviewed/go through the “publication” process. In regards to the above claim, he says:
Let me be totally blunt: that argument was crap then & it’s crap now. The medium is irrelevant; the speed is irrelevant; the delivery mechanism is irrelevant. I could conduct peer review by passenger pigeon & still come up with a lousy result. The quality of thinking is what is important, and frankly I’d go so far as to say, the only thing that’s important. The quality of thinking by the author, by the reviewer, and by the reader. If the author is Jayson Blair, for example, the writing isn’t going to be worthwhile no matter how well-edited it is. If the reviewer is lazy, they won’t catch errors or make good suggestions to improve the manuscript.
Bravo! I’ve been saying the same thing for years now…one of the issues that I confronted with my Master’s Paper was just that…what is “publication”? Does self-publication negate the value of academic work? To claim that good writing MUST be edited is simply short sighted and wrong. Too many people in positions of power in academia seem to fall prey to this fallacy, including many, many librarians.
Peer review will not save you, people. Yes, it’s a good thing. Yes, it’s useful. Yes, it improves the quality of materials. But would you really suggest that there’s no writing that’s good without it? In the whole world? No, no reasonable person would say that. Is there lots of crummy writing out there? Yes, of course there is. Is there crummy writing out there that’s been through an editorial process? Yes, of course there is. Is there quality writing out there that has not been through an editorial process? Yes, OF COURSE there is.
Makes me wish that I had gotten to know Dr. Pomerantz better while I was at UNC. There are a great number of things tied up in this line of thought…academic scholarship is about to undergo some radical changes: more self-publication, less formalized peer-review, more “after the fact” review (ie, commentary rather than pre-pub edits), university rather than publishing house level archival, and much much more. I for one can’t wait.
The House of Representatives just voted to limit the ability of the Patriot Act to gain access to library and bookstore records. From CNN:
The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of innocent library users. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries.
Thanks to all the librarians in Vermont (esp. our favorite, Jessamyn) for putting pressure on Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont to push the legislation forward.
Virtual Reference gets a sudden kick in the pants:
I can’t wait to see how this is used for reference…according to the description, it allows screencasting, sharing of screens, photos, etc, as well as actual video. Sounds like something I’ll be exploring very, very soon.
After returning from vacation, I found a ton of commentary in the librarian blogosphere about the latest Gorman issue. A short list of the comments I read/found:
For those that missed this latest uproar, here’s the question and answer from the Chronicle interview:
Q. Some of your colleagues argue that libraries should become more user-friendly, and that they should change with the times.
A. Libraries are user-friendly, and we have changed. I’ve been in libraries for 40 years, and they’ve changed unutterably. Go to any campus, and the library is likely to be the most technologically advanced unit on campus. … That does not mean that everything can be dumbed down to some kind of hip-hop or bells-and-whistles kind of stuff. It just can’t be. If you want to know about the dynasties of China, you’re going to have to read a book. In fact, you’re going to have to read several books.
Emphasis mine.
This most recent public relations nightmare for the ALA has led to a number of blogging librians to decide to not renew their memberships to ALA. I briefly considered that…then decided that it would give me much, much more pleasure to stay in the ALA, and attempt to move into a position where I can actually make some kind of difference. Gorman’s comment is a best a poor choice of words, and at worst openly racist. To equate “hip-hop” to a dumbed down form of anything shows only his incredible ignorance of the culture and art forms associated with that label. Even if it is not a racist comment (an argument I might be willing to entertain, given that the hip-hop culture has crossed nearly every racial boundary) it is still an insulting one (much in the vein of his earlier blogger comment).
And this isn’t even to critique his issues with Google Print. He keeps talking about the atomization of books, and how scholarly research is about reading books as a whole, and absorbing knowledge in large pieces. If he thinks this is how Google Print is supposed to be used (that is, as a scholarly source) he’s simply not paying attention. No one wants to be able to read whole scholarly texts on Google…they want to use Google Print to identify areas of possible interest in research. If I can full-text search a wider and wider variety of texts, I can more accurately identify books that I want to read in order to gather the knowledge I want. OR, I’m looking for a fact, in which case full-text will allow me to go directly to it. Either way….all of his critiques of Google Print can be equally applied to full text searches/electronic access of scholarly journals, as far as I can tell. Can you imagine someone actually claiming:
The second big objection to me is that they say they’re digitizing articles, but they’re really not, they’re atomizing them. In other words, they’re reducing articles to a collection of paragraphs and sentences which, taken out of context, have virtually no meaning. They may contain some data, but it’s of very marginal utility. I mean, my view is that a scholarly article is an exposition. It begins at the beginning and ends at the end. It cumulatively adds to your knowledge of a topic and presents an argument.
I’m sure we’ll see more insanity from Gorman as we move through the year. I might need to add a “Gorman” category. 🙂
As I mentioned yesterday, Betsy did quite a nice job of detailing the meal-to-end-all-meals that we had at the fabulous Commander’s Palace in Las Vegas. The original Commander’s in New Orleans has been voted time and time again the best restaurant in NOLA, and the Las Vegas branch has continued the amazing food and service.
But you knew that.
I just wanted to take a moment and talk about the actual food we had, and the preparation and tastes involved. We had a combination of three appetizers:
Crab Batons: a new menu item, comprised of lump crab inside a crispy oriental wrap. There were hints of ginger, and it was served with a really light wasabi cream sauce and a homemade warmed thickened soy dipping sauce. The soy had a slight sweetness, but served warm it was the scent that hit first…an earthiness that completely grounded the sweetness of the crab and the spice of the wasabi. A perfectly balanced asian taste sensation.
Louisiana Alligator “Cordon Bleu”: a healthy fillet of alligator, stuffed with a housemade mozzarella and prosciutto di Parma. Unlike the delicate flavor combinations of the Crab Batons, this is more of a big item for the mouth…it was flash fried, so the texture was very crisp on the outside, while the cheesy interior allowed for a creamy finish that wasn’t entirely expected. Combine that with the sharp salt bite of the prosciutto, and it was an appetizer that could hold its own as an entree.
Foie Gras Gumbo: a gumbo with foie gras, a variety of wild mushrooms, and andouille sausage. This was nearly the most perfect thing I’ve ever eaten…thick and rich, with the creamy flavor of foie gras in every bite, but with the spice of the sausage as an afterthought. The serving was small, but it would be difficult to eat any large amount of this due to its density. It was like melted foie gras with a kick of creole spice…perfect. The sous chef told us that this was prepared in a secret corner of the kitchen so that no one knew how it was made, and I believe it. The preparation must take hours to meld all of the ingredients to the perfection that we consumed.
My entree was a Creole spiced Buffalo chop, which was an absolutely immense. It had to be an inch thick, and 7 or so inches in diameter…I requested that the cook prepare it as he would eat it, expecting to get it roughly medium rare. It was perfectly cooked, juicy and pink all the way through. Tender, with a ton of flavor, it was just a great piece of meat. It was accompanied by steak fries that had been tossed in a buttermilk blue cheese and spices, and served with a housemade creole ketchup. My only regret was that I was unable to finish it. With the meal I had a glass of red wine that complimented the buffalo without competing with it, smooth and crisp with nearly no sweetness.
And speaking of sweet…the desserts. Ah…the desserts. We were presented with 5 different selections, but if it were up to me there could have been 5 Bread Pudding Soufflés. This was a dessert that made me question my atheism. It was the normally dense, flavorful dessert reimagined into an edible cloud. Combine the flavor with the sweetness of the bourbon cream sauce that accompanied the soufflé, and you’ve got perhaps my favorite all time dessert. Don’t get me wrong, the white/dark chocolate stuffed beignets were heavenly, and the creole opera cake was a treat, but when you set them down next to the bread pudding soufflé, I don’t even know they are there.
In all, it was definitely one of the two best meals of my life. The only place that comes close is the Fearrington House in NC, and I’m not sure I could rank the two against each other. Combine all that food with a bottle of great French champange, a couple of cups of chicory coffee with dessert, and you’ve got an event that is hard to beat. The entire process was just over 3 hours, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.
Now I’ve got to figure out how to swing a trip out to visit Justin and his little local eatery The French Laundry. 🙂