Week 2 Readings

Computer Hardware: 

Reading this wikipedia article was, for me, like spreading a computer out on a table top and looking at each piece.  I have no idea what each one does or how they interact as a whole.  Thank goodness for all the different links on this page.

Moore's Law: A fascinating article and video.  I don't know if I could call it a law though, as even the wikipedia article stated, "the more Moore's Law was accepted, the more it became a goal for the industry."  It is a goal the indutry has been able to meet thus far.

Even though the microprocessors have become smaller, it does not mean that speed or software capabilities have increased expontentially as well.  This seems to me a mirror of the human experience, as we have these large brains but capacity to use them only a little bit, and that we have access to all the knowledge in the world, yet wisdom is still only attained by a few.

Computer History Museum: I love the internet timeline.  Funny, I didn't find Al Gore on it at all?  I was hoping the chess exhibit could give me some tricks to defeat my husband, but it seems that Deep Blue is my only hope.  The Babbage computer build from his designs would defintiely be something to see.

Comments: week 1

ON Denise-librarylove.blogspot.com:I also agree. I hope we as a society do not become wholly dependent on screen interfaces to access information and even to read a book. Though the possibilities provided by technology are seductive, ultimately I fear it will place too great of a cost burden on the individual

On tee-quakhaan.blogspot.com:

Things have changed a great deal since the first computers. I too wonder what the future will look like, how omnipresent yet invisible multi-media products may be

Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still

Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still.

Jason Vaughn.

Library Hi Tech 2005 V 23 Issue 1 pp 34-49.

I had a lot of trouble accessing this article.  The link on the syllabus landed me on emerald.  I registered with emerald, paid the money on my card, and then their server was unavailable each time I tried.  I tried again the next day and they allowed me to sign in, but kept asking me to register when I already had.

Thank goodness for our TAs!  Wan-Yin Hong responded promptly to me twice and led me to the right place.  Thank you!

I am incredulous that I had to pay $35.50 to read this article.  I understand the debate of information online and ownership of information.  Still, I cannot justify that this was money well-spent.

That being said, I enjoyed reading Mr. Vaughn's article.

A unique and cutting edge technologically based academic library, led by an imaginative and energetic leader, created and pulled off an amazing feat, and it sounds like they have been on top of the many changes that necessarily come with a library which focuses on technology.

Lied Library seems to be an example of the library of the future which we have been reading about thus far.  Librarians spent far less time shelving books, and many hours installing, rotating and updating computer software.

It seems there is a pull between wanting to attract as many people to the library as possible, and a need to curtail public use for the sake of the student body members, whose tuition supports the library.

Lied Library reads as an ultimately fragile place with a huge overhead.  Not only do they have to replace PCs every 3 years and servers and printers nearly as often, technology has increased the library's need for paid staff.

Vaughn writes that he hopes the funding for the library is present in the future.  Without huge amounts of funding, Lied Library would collapse into itself very quickly.

Maybe now I am understanding more the need to charge over $35 for the privilege or reading 15 pages about the set-up and initial stages of evolution of a technological behemoth.

week 1 muddiest point

Well,  I had trouble purchasing one of the articles and I'm not sure what the "right" way to post notes is.

I posted them as I would post notebook notes, but I found other people had insightful and well thought out personal essays.

So, it is the first week and I'm getting the hang of this.

I can muddle through the muddiest points of my own limitations.

Next week will be better, and I'll try that expensive article again tomorrow!

Week 1 assignment

Note: I am thus far unable to access J Vaughn's article "Lied Library."  I attempted to purchase the article and the connection kept timing out and saying the server was unavailable.

I am afraid I will be charged more money for my attempts to view the article, as I had to click the purchase button a few times. 

Honestly, I am not trying to get out of work or be a nuisance on my first assignment!

  Personally, I find $23 to be an exorbitant amount of money to gain access to an article.  Is there a more economical way to be able to read this?

  

--This applies directly to the other readings.  I find myself not willing to pay 0.25 for a sentence.  I would be willing to buy the book, with a chance I could re-sell it.  But if I buy the rights to simply view the article online, I have no way to make some of my money back.

I find this unfair to the students, who collectively pay far more money for the article (each of us paying $23) than a class would pay normally for an article to be placed on reserve at  library.

Also, I am troubled by the erosion of privacy.  I have given emerald my personal information now, and many other websites.  If I was able to walk into a library, I would need to give the information only once, and there in the library it would be contained. 

OCLC Report: Information Format Trends: Content not Containers.  2004

It seems like the outflow of information is no longer able to be checked by traditional means of "binding" information.  Authors are able to bypass the competitive world of book and article publishing, and publish themselves on the internet, at minimal costs ( and at potentially great monetary gains ).

Theoretically, all this new information is also available to a much larger audience, as more and more people have internet access, and internet access all the time with the help of wireless internet and portable internet devices.

Librarians need to adapt to information outside the notion of books--to appeal to the container agnostics: increasingly tech-savvy and discriminating information consumers.

"Search, Find, Obtain": libraries need to play into the new methods consumers use to access and find information.

1964: Marshall McLuhan: "The medium is the message."  This quote makes more sense to me after reading Clifford Lynch's essay "information Literacy"

--It is important to be able to read and understand information, and also important to be able to see the world which made this information, and information delivery possible.

--Mark Federman explains it as: "change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs."

E-info: content delivered at little seeming cost straight to consumer

Disruptive technology: new communication channels offering alternatives to established ways of obtaining content

Payload emails make ILL seem tiny: Libraries do not track their payload emails

Downsized Cost: 

--micropayment for micro-content is increasingly common.

--without the old physical form--one is paying for seemingly pure info, or for the privilege of reading someone's info 

--there is demand for micro-content and a willingness to pay for the convenience of having it delivered

Blogs: way for libraries to reach out, and to hear from consumers?

--more and more people are reading blogs for their fresh perspective, ease and convenience.

--Libraries could use this as  way to begin to rate information and keep people updated on what is new in the informational world.

Projections show that print materials will still rise in production--though not nearly as fast as online materials

This article suggests that libraries move beyond collecting and organizing and to begin assessing quality of information available

"we are drowning in information and starving for knowledge"

There is a need for conceptual tools acting as unseen librarians directing people to the particle information which will best suit their interests (guide to context)

"Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture"  Clifford Lynch 2-21-98

IT is to understand technology and its underpinnings in every day life.

  ---understand tools of technology

 ---- understanding the policy which shapes its development and dissemination

Information Literacy

--beyond reading, writing, critiquing.

--though it is important to understand information, it is also important to understand its meaning within its structures

         ----this seems to be a more complete education, to understand the information and the information machine which made it possible, and the depth of the tools we employ to access it

Authoring

--it is not just typing anymore

--a good education teaches deeper knowledge of software and formatting.  Lynch believes education is still stuck largely in a 1980s word processing model, cheating students out of the knowledge of how information is truly worked and formatted in the world

 

Technology and Library Users: LITA experts

---"FutureSpeak: A Preface to Top Technology Trends in Libraries" Tome Wilson

Wilson rejects the implication that predictions mean one can see or control the future.

"The" + "Future" connotes that there is one possible future that will play out

Peter Bishop warns against assumptions in forecasting

--says the best long term forecasts are not necessarily accurate or precise, but are those which are useful.

         --these are the most probable, most plausible

          --greatest threats to good forecasting is often the forecaster's assumptions

          --Technology is but one factor influencing the future