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.

 
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"Librarians rock. That reputation they have involving buns, sensible shoes and shushing people is merely a cunning ruse, developed over centuries, to conceal their real lives as radicals, subversives and providers of extreme helpfulness." Taken from this article from the New Zealand Herald.

The article's a round-up of various library weblogs, including mine (heh - I knew my status as the only (listed) NZ library weblogger would bring me fame and fortune one day).

It starts by discussing the Michael Moore Stupid White Men incident, and then points to some blogs. Now, here's where I'm a bit disappointed: look who's listed.

• The Bellydancing Librarian


• The Modified Librarian


• Naked Librarian


• Anarchist Librarians


• Lipstick Librarian


• Laughing Librarian


• Ska Librarian


• Biblia, The Warrior Librarian


• Conan the Librarian

Notice what these all have in common? None of them are serious library blogs (except the Anarchist Librarians and me, and you can see why we were included). Where were Steven and Jenny and Marylaine and Gary Price and Jessamyn (apart from the Naked Librians page)?

Sigh. Less "interesting use of new(ish) technology by worldwide group of information professionals" and more "stereotype: anti-stereotype". Such is life.

[edit] I had a closer look through the Ska Librarian and Laughing Librarian sites, and they do contain at least some "serious" information (gosh, what a value judgment). Although the Ska Librarian's site is only tangentially related to his profession - and you can see he was included because "gay skinhead librarian with weird taste in music" makes more interesting copy than "average (wo)man with interesting things to say about new developments in library and information science"[/edit]

[edit]I've had to correct HTML errors five times in this post. Lamer.

| posted by Simon at 8:35 am

 
New Zealand national electronic resources consortium.

These last few days I've been very excited about the PER:NA project, sponsored by the National Library of New Zealand. PER:NA stands for Purchasing Electronic Resources: a National Approach. What the National Library has done is negotiate a consortium deal that covers every library in New Zealand. All sizes. All sectors. School, public, academic, special. Everybody is included.

The idea is that as many libraries as possible sign up for the consortium, which gives us access to some quality general information sources, supplied by Ebsco and Gale. We get access to full-text and bibliographic databases containing business, health, news, and general reference sources, both serials and monographs.

A quick flick-through shows me I could save quite a significant sum by signing up, and gain access to titles I wouldn't have a chance of purchasing any other way. And my customers (colleagues, staff, whatever) like the idea too (which is really what's important). Looks like we are good to go.

I'm really pleased by this. Let's hope it's the beginning of something even bigger, and well done the National Library.

| posted by Simon at 6:07 pm

 
Look no further than the MLS Graduate Student Resume Database. Open to all recent (within last 6 months) MLS graduates, the service is provided by the Association of Research Libraries, and linked to their diversity program.

This looks great. Exactly the sort of thing I need, if I'm planning on working in the US after I graduate. And at the moment, that's a definite option. Obviously, it's only of relevance if you're looking for work in the USA ;-)

First seen on Neat New Stuff I Found on the Web This Week, for which no praise can be too high.

| posted by Simon at 6:01 pm

 
"When several users look at the same book page they can see the AR image from their own viewpoint and when one flys into the virtual model, the other users see her as a virtual character in the scene."

HIT Labs, based at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) have launched a 3-D children's book. Here's the press release, and here's more on the book.

| posted by Simon at 5:55 pm

 
Justice Ministry staff are now sending text messages to remind people that fines and payments are due. Nice idea. Simple, and will hopefully have an effect on the youth market, as they intend.

| posted by Simon at 5:50 pm

 
What hope do the rest of us have?

Citing increasing prices (and limited use), Harvard University libraries are cutting the number of journals they subscribe to. (The Harvard Crimson Online). While the article claims that 90% of the use comes from 10% of the journals (which sounds exaggerated, the usual rule quoted is the "20%/80% rule), that leaves aside the fact that the other journals still make some contribution to the body of knowledge. And if Harvard is cutting these subscriptions, who, anywhere, is going to be able to afford them?

| posted by Simon at 5:42 pm

 
Pravda writes that Russia's five largest libraries have created a "virtual summary catalogue of their bibliographic descriptions and full-text electronic resources". The project is supported by the British Council and the European Union. The new catalogue will have three million records.

Cool!

| posted by Simon at 5:37 pm

 
The New York Post reports that a 60-year-old school librarian, under investigation for allegedly assaulting two students, has claimed she was sexually assaulted by the investigator. She has now been arrested for 'concocting' that claim.

Possibly not what we really need to improve the professional image of librarians, etc etc.



| posted by Simon at 5:34 pm

 
OK, I'm posting this a day or two late...

Amazon teams up with British Library (The Scotsman, 25 November).

Interesting thing here, which I didn't realise - the scheme will enable Amazon to sell books published before 1970. Up until now, Amazon only sold books with ISBNs (only introduced in 1970 - I didn't know that, either). This seems like a great example of how we can work with commercial operators for everyone's benefit. (I hope the BL is reaping some benefit from this).

| posted by Simon at 5:30 pm

 
First seen on The Resource Shelf, a ranking of global access to Information and Communications Technology. Probably inevitably, the Scandanavian countries top the list, with South Korea being the only country from outside that group in the top five. Canada, the US, and the UK hold 10, 11, and 12, and New Zealand is down nine places to 21, two behind Australia. We score very highly in the knowledge category (access to education, adult literacy), so it looks like we are being let down by things like broadband access and mobile phone ownership.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the high prices of those services here, compared to most developed countries?

Link to report.

| posted by Simon at 8:51 am

 
Article from Time on 25 must-read graphic novels. Scarily, I've only heard of a handful of them - the Batman Dark Knight novels, Maus, Robert Crumb's work, From Hell, Sandman, and I haven't read any of those. No mention for Watchmen or V for Vendetta which is a pity.....

| posted by Simon at 1:12 pm

 
Unless you get the people side right first. Nothing earth-shattering here, but I'm mentioning it because it's another Work Foundation report (my former employer) and I used to work with the co-author who's quoted in the article.

From BBC News.

| posted by Simon at 1:06 pm

 
I liked this. It explains why writers should still (hey!) use the library for their information gathering needs, rather than relying on Google and the 'net exclusively. Benefits of libraries discussed include classification, selection of authoritative sources, the ability to search controversial materials without fear of an invasion of privacy, and the presence of information experts. Not sure I like the article's dismissive tone towards bloggers, though. The list of ten cool library manuevers for writers is, um, cool too.

Originally seen on librarian.net.

| posted by Simon at 12:44 pm

 
Nothing new in this, of course, but I found this comment interesting: "It is easier [to cheat], because sometimes when you go to the library you can't find the necessary books or you have too much to read," she says."

Something for us to be aware of, perhaps? Poor collection development/management as a cause of students cheating?

From the good ol' BBC.

| posted by Simon at 11:52 am

 
In what is surely a statement of the glaringly obvious, a survey finds that 95% of computer users thought companies using email marketing had an obligation to make more of an effort to only send out information pertinent to them. Apparently, receiving endless emails promoting products that we are not interested in is a turn-off. But the problem is set to get worse.

The BBC, 17 November 2003.

| posted by Simon at 11:49 am

 
The BBC reports that record labels are urging artists to put fewer tracks on albums because fans are put off by too many average songs.

| posted by Simon at 11:47 am

 
I've started third trimester courses, one of which is on digital libraries. The course notes refer to the (New Zealand) National Digital Forum, which is a coalition of organisations with an interest in digital resources. It's website is hosted on the National Library's website, which gives it authoritative status, and the website itself both looks good and contains interesting content, including a list of digitisation projects going on around the country, policies and guidelines, technical standards, training resources, conference papers and articles, and document templates and planning tools.

| posted by Simon at 10:08 pm

 
The NME reports that internet users could face up to five years in prisonfor distributing music and films before their scheduled release date, in a bill before the US Senate. Which clearly, in these days of the War on Terror (TM) has nothing better to do with its time.


| posted by Simon at 1:13 pm

 
Steven points to this interesting article: Why I Hate Personal Weblogs. Contains lots of ranting and swearing, so if that is likely to offend you, probably best not to read it. I did like the 'weblog statement of audience' which the author proposes that all weblog authors create to facilitate understanding of their place in the universe and the importance of their writings. A suggested template begins:

"I realize that nothing I say matters to anyone else on the entire planet. My opinions are useless and unfocused. I am an expert in nothing. I know nothing."

| posted by Simon at 1:10 pm

 
It will contain over 12 million documents or 25 per cent of China's public information resources.

From The Hindu.

| posted by Simon at 1:04 pm

 
Greg Hill, director of Fairbanks North Star Borough libraries, discusses the flood of information available on the internet, and mentions that this means job security for librarians and information professionals. All true enough, although nothing we haven't seen before - I just wish there were more of these articles written by non-librarians - at the moment it seems like the converted preaching to themselves. One saving grace is that the audience are non-librarians, and for personal reasons I'm tickled to find that "corybantic" is a word....

From Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

| posted by Simon at 1:02 pm

 
Declining book sales in Japan are being blamed in part on libraries lending out new books, as well as on second-hand bookstores, and the sluggish economy. Authors have proposed both financial compensation for books borrowed (along the lines of the UK's public lending right, which Japan lacks), and an embargo on lending books until 3 to 6 months after publication.

From The Daily Yomiuri online.

| posted by Simon at 12:57 pm

 
The British Library (BL) has unveiled Collect Britain, a �3.25m digitisation project, putting 100,000 unique and rare items from its collections on the web.

From Computing.

Users will be able to build their own folders of images and sounds over time, enabling them to develop a personal resource tool....By entering their postcode or key terms for favourite subjects, users can also be sure to be notified when new content matching their area of interest is added to the collections.

Looks good. I especially like the notification and personalisation aspects.

| posted by Simon at 12:54 pm

 
The Guardian reports that the UK government has just passed a law extending legal deposit to electronic publications.

"Chris Mole, Labour MP for Ipswich, who introduced the bill in December, said the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales; the University Library, Cambridge; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and Trinity College Library, Dublin, would have to use their judgment in "harvesting" websites and electronic publications. "

| posted by Simon at 9:10 am

 
This month's issue of D-Lib carries an article by Geneva Henry on the future of online scholarly publishing. Henry argues that the debate over whether authors or readers should pay for the cost of publication is a 20th century one, inappropriate to the 21st century. She suggests that the real advantage of e-publishing will be a transformation of the way knowledge is created, with it becoming defined by a collaborative model, in which books, and even articles, can be produced by multiple authors, both within and accross disciplines, with each author creating a 'knowledge module', rather than a whole work. These modules can then be re-worked and modified as knowledge develops.

| posted by Simon at 5:13 pm

 
Says the New Zealand Herald (4 November 2003): " A year of development in high-speed internet services has failed to lift New Zealand's broadband penetration. Reports by the International Telecommunications Union and the OECD put us on the bottom rungs of the international ladder."

Hmm. Quite possibly due to the ridiculous prices we have to pay for broadband here, and the fact that most of it isn't true broadband by international standards, anyway.

| posted by Simon at 12:40 pm