Whenever people ask me why anyone would want to be an academic librarian, I point them to things like Texas Tech librarian Robert Weiner’s recent call for papers for an edited volume on Mystery Science Theater 3000. (And I’ll bet it’s part of his tenure packet, too.)
And. look, he even wants a chapter to focus on cataloging and metadata for MST3K! Now, that I’d really like to see!
Title: The Authority of experts : studies in history and theory
Author: Haskell, Thomas L., 1939-
ISSN/ISBN: 0253310792
TN: 141656
Call Number: HD 8038 .A1 A88 1984
has been cancelled for the following reason:
This item is missing from the stacks in Bizzell. If you still need this item, please try to order it through ILL from the OU-Tulsa Library.
If you have a question about this cancelled item, please contact the [Bizzell library] office at interlibrary-loan@ou.edu or 405-325-6422 with the Transaction Number 141656.
I’m tempted to post this as “Theorizing the Collection 5,” but since the individual in question is apparently an artist rather than an academic (or a librarian!), I’ll just call it “the aesthetics of deaccessioning.” However, Julia Weist’s unique reading/weeding research project into why romance novels fail to linger on the shelves is far from MUSTIE. Now, this is something that I would have loved to see at the ALISE “innovative research” sessions in Denver this January!
I don’t normally expect to see things like this review from Rolling Stone mentioning the song “Librarian” on the band’s new album “Evil Urges” on the JESSE listserv as I did yesterday (though this YouTube clip wasn’t included. JESSE folks, like myself, still tend to be fairly print-centric.) Though I expect this won’t be the last time, especially given some of the library school music videos I’ve seen lately….
(I also like the Chronicle’s recent astrological guide to academic career success, if only because the one for Capricorn fits me so nicely: “You have intellectual talents within a somewhat narrow range. You are good at accumulating small details and identifying patterns that fit established theories.”)
Since I automatically associate the borough of Whitechapel in London with Jack the Ripper, it was a revelation to me to see that their public library (the “Idea Store”) is so cutting-edge that it made this recent list of libraries in Architectural Record. I’m particularly intrigued by what they’re doing inside the building, too!
Okay, so I’m googling (yes, assistant professors google a lot!) Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, to check out a hint that his “Project Halo” is about to go commercial with the launch of a really intelligent search engine, when I accidentally come across the “other” Paul Allen of Ancestry.com (self-identified as “Paul Allen the Lesser”), who has a post about his own experiences as a CEO. Read more…
Wonderful graphic on Lorcan Dempsey’s blog at OCLC about the place of the ILS in the larger network environment (though you also need to go to his blog to get the accompanying thousand words, which are pretty good too!) Read more…
But the Open Library project looks like serious fun, so it’s definitely on the agenda! (And from what little comparison I’ve been able to do, the full-text scans they’ve made available are much better than those on Google Books!) This would make a great class project for someone….
(Well, that’s what one of my favorite faculty colleagues and I call this particular line of thought), but O’Reilly Radar is calling it “If Libraries Had Shareholders,” and it’s roughly the same idea. In strategic intelligence, however, which I happen to teach, this wouldn’t necessarily be viewed as an insoluble problem: it would be more of an opportunity to explore new options for the organization. It’s interesting that this type of thinking isn’t widely taught in l-schools, though it’s pretty common in i-schools.
