Dusting it off from the archives - Dialog Searching

Last Thursday a bunch of librarians were standing around reminiscing about their ancient library school experiences. I nodded along for most of it, faintly remembering using the card catalog in high school, and also typing in ridiculous command lines on my 286 back in the late 80s as a DOS-literate 5 year old. Yes, things have not always been slick and easy and handed to you on a silver platter. No one learns or cares how to do a command search now that incoming college 18 year olds expect everything to work exactly like Google.

Not until these very same librarians all started crooning about this thing called Dialog. Then, oh boy, could they tell some stories. Dialog searching, where you can see the charges rack up by the second for each additional command and each wrong turn made. Even my recent library school grad co-workers admitted to having to learn it, if not just for the sake of bragging rights. "You will never need to use this again," they were told by professors. So why learn it? Why seemingly go backwards rather than forwards in this increasingly techno-geeky library world? From what I gather, it's one of the biggest rushes librarians have ever been subject to in the past twenty or so years. Hopefully within the course of the next two years I'll be able to join these ranks and claim record speed and accuracy parallel to none other.

RSS Aggravator

Phunny, yeah? Seriously, though, I understand the significance and the eventual time saver that this kind of setup will bring. I'm just waiting for that time to show itself as I set up Google Reader and Bloglines to begin the mad rush of technolo-binging that seems to go along with subscribing to fifty thousand blogs.

Small victories - big payoff

So last night as I polished off the Kuhn paper and posted it successfully to the discussion board, a tiny sense of satisfaction crept into my being. Not large, mind you, but it was there nonetheless. Week One has passed; Week Two is under way. Life goes on, regardless of the unending stream of suggested readings, viewings, and discussings that threaten to steal my sanity (and I believe the sanity of many other people taking these courses).

Oh, and the Disney ripoff montage was entertaining as well. Very fitting on the topic of fair use. It's amazing what people find the time to do - I guess all the time that's saved by using computers and the internet has to be good for something, huh?

The World is Flat?

Recently I've taken to listening to books on tape (or CD, I guess) during my hour long commute to and from work. My latest foray actually has a lot to do with LIS2600 - a book called The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. A history of the unfolding computer age with commentary about his extensive travels, Friedman writes a compelling saga about his quest for knowledge in what he describes as an ever flattening world. From Bangalore to Salt Lake City, Friedman explores "globalization 3.0" and the evolution of supply chains through interviews with top CEOs from powerhouses like Google, Walmart, IBM and even UPS.

It's all very enlightening, and it's even more exciting when I recognize terms I've just read in the Discovering Computers book or heard about in one of our many podcasts. I'm almost scared to think what he'd say about Library 2.0... we'd probably find out that universities and public libraries are outsourcing their catalogers in Bangladesh or something... food for thought.

Check out a lecture by Friedman given at MIT in 2005 regarding his recent book.

And so it begins

Welcome. My hope is that this blog will reflect interestingly on some current events of interest, perhaps relating to libraries or technology or politics or religion or other offensive topics one should never bring up at parties. As an avowed literary and music nerd, these will probably also make an appearance time and again. Feel free to comment and argue on this page as much as you'd like. The more voices, the better.