Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
It was the firewall. Well duh, obvious when I think about it. I've downloaded it at home and it already looks pretty darn sexy. Especially the fact that Reuters Health is one of their basic channels, and I use it every day anyway. That should save some time already.

AND I found this story in The Guardian, EMI are going to make almost their entire catalogue available, online, for users to download (for a fee, obviously).

AND, they'll be allowing format shifting! "consumers will be able to make permanent copies of songs and transfer them to recordable CDs, portable music players and their hard drives." The latest singles will be available for download as soon as they're released. Good lord. Giant record companies seeing sense? I guess this is the start of an inevitable process. I wonder if Jenny has seen this - I have a feeling she'd like it....


| posted by Simon at 8:56 pm

 
OK, I was browsing through Kazaa recently, and I came across a whole bunch of Spiritualized tracks that I hadn't seen before. So, being a big fan, I naturally start downloading them. Turns out they're from a forthcoming album. Cool. So I cue them in Winamp and start to play. First song: a 30 second intro, then a fade to nothingness for the rest of the track. Hmm, that's odd. Second track: same thing. Download another version of the first song: same thing. Obviously the record company putting fake MP3s up to discourage bootleggers. All right, I accept that what I'm doing is illegal, but I'm a big fan, and I would have bought the album day of release, anyway (why listen to MP3s on my rubbish PC speakers when I can buy the CD?). So all that the record company have done is lose some of my goodwill.

What really annoys me is that they can spend time putting up fake versions of new songs, but they can't be bothered updating the official site to even mention that there's a forthcoming album....Or doing something about the godawful design - hey, let's put white text on a grey background - that'll be easy for people to read. Weird designs work on donniedarko.com, not on what's supposed to be an informative site. 10 bucks says the fan sites are 100 times more informative, as usual.

| posted by Simon at 4:25 pm

 
Inevitable really, but Real Madrid have put my beloved Manchester United out of the European Cup. 4-3 to us at home doesn't make up for the 3-1 loss in Madrid, and we lose 6-5 on aggregate. 'twas a glorious match though, and had me wishing it was the final (not just because we won). As far as I'm concerned, we're better than any of the other teams left in the competition, and it was just bad luck that drew us against the team that should win the trophy. The Guardian has an interesting article on our possible signings over the summer - Paul Robinson and Pavel Nedved seem to be high on the list, but Ronaldinho and Damian Duff (still) are mentioned. With the only problem being that Giggs and/or Beckham would have to go....Barthez doesn't look quite the player we thought he was, either - could be time for a change in goal....

| posted by Simon at 3:36 pm

 
I've been using NZ Dating in an attempt to improve my social life and meet some new people. It's going quite well, I've met three people so far and had a good time with each of them, in different ways. I think I've made some friends, at the least - and the great thing about it is that I've met people whom I never would have met IRL , because we move in completely different circles.

(Although having said that, the last person I met is the stepsister of one of my childhood friends, whose father was the architect on my mother's house back ten years ago. It's a small town, pretty much all the time).

What I find interesting about meeting people in the flesh after having interacted online is how different they are. I've almost found (and this goes for almost everyone I've met this way) that if I got on well with someone in a virtual environment, that I wouldn't get on particularly well with them IRL. And the people who I had least hopes for when I met them IRL were the ones who I tended to get on with best. (Of course, there are exceptions - Fin for one). I'm not sure how to explain that - maybe it's a case of failing to meet expectations. I don't know.

| posted by Simon at 1:05 pm

 
Googlewatch carries an interesting article about the power of Google, and why privacy advocates should be wary of it. Interesting, and somewhat disturbing, to see that the Google toolbar is spyware - I hadn't realised. What's worse is the connections between Google and key members of the Bush administration. Via the Anarchist Librarians Web.

| posted by Simon at 12:59 pm

 
I *think* I've worked out why I couldn't actually see any news headlines in Newzcrawler...I'm being denied access to the server. I'm guessing this is a firewall problem at work. Maybe if I try it at home it might work (cue 3 hour wait while my 56k modem does what it has to do).

| posted by Simon at 12:54 pm

 
I just downloaded Newzcrawler - still trying to work out exactly what it does and doesn't do - I haven't managed to download any new stories yet, but I'm sure that will come with time. (edited to fix link - no http).

| posted by Simon at 5:08 pm

 
There's nothing like reading your referral logs to make you realise that not everyone has quite as good a grasp of internet search technologies as they think they do. And that Google and all its little algorithms still isn't half as good at finding something as a couple of cunning librarians. Reason I'm inspired to write this? My *other* blog is turning up in the top few results of various Google searches, for things which have very little to do with it.

For example: "soccer scors." - nice try - helps if you spell your search term correctly, though (SCORS is an acronym mentioned on my site, is why it turned up my blog).

Example again: male photography of soccer players in the UK. I mean, what? This is wrong on so many levels. Think about it - there's no UK soccer team, or league, so no-one's going to use UK to refer to any site about English soccer or Scottish soccer. Second, the English, Scots, etc call it football, not soccer. Third, 99% of any references to soccer are going to be to the male game anyway, so that's superfluous. Fourth, no-one's going to be using the word photography - photos or photographs maybe. Or indeed photo*. Truncation is a wonderful thing. Rant over, it's 1am here.

| posted by Simon at 1:05 am

 
Two hours till kick off. Manchester United vs Blackburn. Every game crucial now. The Arsenal supporters at work are acting confident, but I think they're trying to hide their worry. Come on United!

| posted by Simon at 12:54 am

 
So the big match finishes 2-2. Football365 reckons that United were robbed - naturally, I'm not going to argue with that one. Cracking match though, and it means this is going to be one of the most exciting finishes to a Premiership race in a good few years. I'm thinking Arsenal might just shade it - possibly even on goal difference.

| posted by Simon at 4:38 pm

 
More readings for my essay - F.W. Lancaster Towards paperless information systems (1978) sketches out a vision of scientific information distribution in 2000 AD that is very close to what actually happened - although his model is a bit more organised. Given that he was writing before GUIs or word processing programmes, his vision of scientists with terminals in their offices, writing reports in electronic format and able to edit them, and then depositing them in electronic storage systems, with a peer-review process, is very close to what happened. OK, print isn't dead, but people were claiming it would be right into the late 1990s (or indeed last month, at my work).

Unintentionally funny is this quote on p. 121 'the system is intended to provide for electronic access to all types of documents read for their information value but is not intended to replace print on paper for items read solely for recreational purposes. Playboy, for example, is unlikely to be enhanced by soft copy display'.

Priceless!

| posted by Simon at 6:34 pm

 
So, I'm writing an essay on the problems caused by information overload in the pre-electronic era, and whether or not information technology has ameliorated those problems. My first search for relevant references returns approx 500 hits, in full-text. Overloaded with information about information overload? Does that count as irony?

(As part of this research I read Craig Brod's Technostress (1984). Brod argues that excessive use of computers is making people anti-social, impatient of imperfection, and generally tired and introverted, preferring to interact with machines. And this was years before the 'net went mainstream. It made me pause for a few minutes, and re-think whether I really needed to update my P2 and hook up broadband. For a few minutes, anyway.)

| posted by Simon at 6:00 pm

 
WelovetheIraqiInformationMinister.com..it had to happen really...very funny site though, mostly Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf's deathless quotes (many involving shoes) but with a bit of editorial comment. Uniquely in an internet humour site, their readers seem to (a) get the joke and (b) have something funny to say themselves. (For examples of internet humour sites whose readers just don't get it, see the White House parody site), or the sadly departed www.jesus.com (he sold the domain to some Christians).

| posted by Simon at 5:36 pm

 
Interesting post over on Freepint from a newcomer to information management. Ben asks if there is actually any point to the existance of information professionals - "what's wrong with Google?". Also some interesting questions about the use of databases, and why there are so many. Helpful, actually, in terms of making me think about some of the things I took for granted.

| posted by Simon at 5:10 pm

 
He scores goals galore, he scores goals, he scores goals galore, he scores goals, he scores goals galore, he scores goals, Paul Scholes, he score goals.
Newcastle United 2 Manchester United 6. That makes it 10 goals in two games. Bring on Arsenal tomorrow.

| posted by Simon at 12:37 pm

 
Cluetrain manifesto
I know I'm years behind the times on this one, but I just read the (print version) of the Cluetrain Manifesto. I was impressed. It seems to be telling truths about the online world that companies (and individuals for that matter) need to think about. We're all networked now. I guess it expressed things which I've intuitively felt about my working world, but couldn't put into words - the sense of being just as connected to people who are outside our organisation, even those who work for rival organisations, as I am to people within it. Often, I have better working relationships with, and am closer to, my counterparts in other libraries than to people who work down the hall from me.

Anyway. Cluetrain. Worth reading - the online version just gives the manifesto, rather than the whole book which they wrote about it. Nice to see they've got a sense of humour, linking to this parody site (also well worth a read).

| posted by Simon at 12:22 pm

 
Destruction of the library of Baghdad
Lot of debate on the NZ Libs mailing list about the destruction of the National Library and National Archives in Baghdad, prompted by this article by Robert Fisk in the Independent (15 April 2003).

While the loss is undoubtably tragic, I have to ask, should we really be so concerned with books and artefacts when people are dying? Like Philip K Dick said somewhere (I've forgotten the reference) 'at My Lai over 200 priceless and irreplaceable works of art were vandalised to death' (or something like that).

| posted by Simon at 12:18 pm

 
Who am I?
I'm Simon. I'm a student in a Master of Library and Information Studies programme . I study part-time and I work full-time.

| posted by Simon at 12:15 pm

 
Why VALIS?
It's from a Philip K. Dick novel. VALIS stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. I had to add "blog" to my blog title because someone had already chosen VALIS for theirs. OK, so I'm not original.

| posted by Simon at 2:29 pm

 
What's it all about then?
This began is a personal blog where I chronicled my adventures in higher education, and my attempts to pass the professional library qualifications while at the same time working full-time as a librarian. Over the months I've reduced the personal content and basically focused on posting material that's relevant to the profession, and specifically my own interests and the courses I'm studying.

| posted by Simon at 1:59 pm