Week 13 Readings

No Place to Hide
It all sounds so 1984 Big Brother-y to me that my natural inclination is to dismiss it as conspiracy theory nonsense, but I think I’ve heard this same sort of theory enough times over a long enough period to give it some credit.

EPIC
I’m glad to know that there’s a group out there lobbying for the privacy of my information, but obviously they’re not especially well funded if their website looks as skillfully written as some of our Assignment 6es.

YouTube Video
no longer available due to copyright claim by Viacom

Week 12 Readings

Sorry for being away for so long, y'all! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and all that.

Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program
Does anybody else suspect that the ALA was reading this sort of wiki-propoganda before they aparently drank the Kool Aid and went all wiki on us? Ugh. I don't think much of this author, to tell you the truth. I read the summary first (c'mon like y'all don't! it's like reading the abstract), and got all uber-sarcastic up in this joint like "Oh, we need everybody's expertise? Really? Stunning. Give us another gem, genius!"


Creating the academic library folksonomy
At some point, I just have to shrug my shoulders and say "this has as little to do with my work as a children's librarian as sock puppets do to a chemistry librarian." This article brings about that reaction. Working with kids, I can't conceiveof why I would have them make a folksonomy of the library's holdings. Perhaps I could get them involved in the choosing of bookmarks for the library's homepage, but kids and their language and their fads change so quickly that there would be an incredibly high turnover rate in tagging. Sorry, but this gets a pass from me.

Jimmy Wales: How a ragtag band created Wikipedia
He's a pretty darn good talker. I was really surprised at how volunter-based Wikipedia was--I expected them to be closer to the PBS model--as well as how few users are editors (he says that there's a close-knit community of only 600-1000 editors, and only about 18% of edits are anonymous). Anybody else think his opinion on truth and neutrailty was uber post modern?

Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries
I really like the idea of incorporating blog-teaching into the role of librarians. Hurrah information literacy! Since I've taken to bridle with SCALA's blog (and, coming on its heels, this blog where I can freestyle shizzle), I feel totally comfortable with the idea of incorporating blogs into my professional life (whether with students or with other library workers).

Week 6 Readings

YouTube
In my apartment building we all share one wireless internet connection. Does this count as a LAN or a PAN? I would have just jumped on LAN before this video, but now I’m thinking it might be a PAN since I don’t share any of my files with them—and I’m not sure that if I wanted to I could. It’s the same sort of thing at McDonald’s or Starbucks I guess—you’re all sharing the internet connection, but can you be said to be on a LAN?

Wikipedia: Networks
What advantages and disadvantages does a university the size of Pitt see in LAN WAN? Are the considerations different for universities the size of say CalU (California University of Pennsylvania) or IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) than for Pitt?

Wikipedia: LANs
I can’t believe the first LAN was set up in 1974! Do you think Harvard and Yale were very angry indeed that Cambridge did it first? I shouldn’t be surprised if Oxford is still ticked off—can you imagine not being able to invite them over for tea and crumpets (a most scrumptious delight) for decades over this business?
“Netware dominated[8] the personal computer LAN business from early after its introduction in 1983 until the mid 1990s when Microsoft introduced Windows NT Advanced Server and Windows for Workgroups.” Wait—what’s netware? What’s it got to do with LANs? Confused=me.

RFIDs
Is it just me, or is anybody else reminded of those chips they implant in dogs to identify them if they run away when the author describes the radio frequency, electromagnetic field, having so much information, and not having to be seen to be read of RFIDs? I really like the author’s points that RFIDs are multitasking (doing both security and circulation) and money-saving in comparison to their use by the retail sector.