I blogged over at ALA TechSource earlier this week about the explosion of Google services that happened in 2009, and picked out the top 3 or 4 that I think libraries should be watching. If you’re interested, I’d love to know what you think about Google’s growth, and how Libraries are keeping up.
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Blast from holidays past
I just wanted to call some attention to one of my all-time favorite posts here on Pattern Recognition, which honors a holiday tradition from one of my favorite areas of the world, the Catalan region of Spain. I posted this last Holiday season, but in reading it, it just never gets old.
Catalan families go into the woods and find a Christmas Log (Tió de Nadal) to bring into their home. It’s painted or otherwise decorated with a face, and wrapped in a blanket. Over the weeks before Christmas, the Caga Tió is fed sweets and other treats, in order to get him ready for the command performance on Christmas. After weeks of being fed, the Caga Tió is ready. He is then beaten with sticks by the children of the family until he poops out treats for the children, usually in the form of the Catalan treat called turron. Yes…the log poops out the children’s treats, which they then consume. Caga Tió literally translates into “Pooping Logâ€.
Go read the rest of the post. Really. There’s even a video…it’s worth it, I promise.
Sometime in the last few days, evidently my newest book hit the data streams, because it now shows up on Amazon, in LibraryThing, and on the publisher’s website! It won’t be out until March or so, but it’s still exciting to see.
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Sad Bicycle
Last night while playing, Eliza stopped, looked at her new tricycle (which she calls a bicycle) and said:
“Mommy, my bicycle is sad.”
It took Betsy a few minutes to figure out what she meant, but she was focused on the wheel above. She then went over to the bike, patted it, and said “It’s ok bicycle, I’m right here.”
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Libraries are…
Presented without comment.
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Eliza is two!!!
Happy Birthday, my big girl!
You can run, jump, dance, climb, sing, hum, make funny faces, play tickle monster, and make people laugh. You love books and to “read” to your stuffed animals and baby dolls (and sometimes to mommy and daddy). You’re a little addicted to Ni Hao, Kai Lan. But sometimes you like to watch the old Frosty the Snowman cartoon. Your favorite toys change from day-to-day, but you adore your new tricycle, Mr. Potato Heads, kitchen stuff, tea sets, play doh, markers and paper, bath crayons, and all your “lovies.”
Your favorite place is Shan’s Chinese Buffet, which is where we had your birthday party, since you love it so much. You ate noodles, broccoli, fish, and chicken plus two bowls of ice cream and most of the icing off your cake (vanilla, of course, your favorite).
You love “school,” especially art and music class, and you have so much fun with your friends and your wonderful teachers.
We are so proud of you and, to quote one of your favorite books, “We love everything that you will be and all the things you are.”
On this blog, I don’t often wax poetic about my family. On Twitter and over on Brand New World, sure, but I usually keep this area for stuff about some aspect of my life outside of my wonderful wife and amazing daughter…professional, if you will. But today, Eliza turns two, and I thought I should pause for just a moment and just make sure that everyone knows:
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She is fucking awesome. |
I hope that someday she’ll be able to look at the things that I’ve written and the photos I’ve taken and that she can feel even some of the love that I have for her. She’s my monkey, that daughter of mine, and she gets more amazing every day.
Daddy loves you, Eliza Rhea.
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Social Cataloging
A great presentation by Tim Spalding called What is Social Cataloging?, from the LIANZA 2009 conference in New Zealand. I recommend it if you’re at all interested in metadata, LibraryThing, or, I suppose, Tim Spalding.
Concluding Keynote at LIANZA 09 in Christchurch, NZ. Covers LibraryThing, tagging, personal cataloging, sharing, social networking, implicit and explicit social cataloging, collaboration, what’s wrong with OCLC and other exciting topics.
I was going to blog about the recent article describing how publishers are going to be slotting ebooks into their traditional Handcover-then-Paperback release schedule. I was going to point out that treating digital objects like physical objects has never worked, will never work, and to expect it to work is a fundamental error of modern media.
I was going to do that, but then Chad Haefele over at Hidden Peanuts did it for me. Go read it.
From his post:
Scribner has created an ecosystem where piracy is literally the only option for potential customers who would otherwise line up to give them money, AND that piracy delivers what’s actually a superior product with no DRM.
Yep, that’s pretty much what they’ve done. And, like the music industry, they are going to shoot themselves right in the foot.
I’m in the middle of writing an issue of Library Technology Reports on Gadgets in your Library, focusing on personal electronics (eReaders, personal media players, cameras, audio recorders, etc). I’ve been drowning in electronic readers lately, starting with the Barnes & Noble Nook finally shipping and going all the way through a myriad of hardware vendors that are jumping into the eReader space. A few of the eReaders that might not be on everyone’s radar: