Jon Frater

Baker & Taylor News Bit

October 18, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

Baker & Taylor and OCLC Announce Cataloging Partnership

I’m not really sure if this is good news or not, but it’s probably good to know for those libraries who do business with B&T. In part:

"CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – October 13, 2005 — Baker & Taylor, the leading distributor of books and audio-visual materials and provider of library services, and OCLC Online Computer Library Center, the world’s largest library cooperative, today announced a partnership that will offer OCLC cataloging records to subscribers who receive books and audio visual materials from the Baker & Taylor family of companies."

Stephen’s Guide Index of Logical Fallicies

October 18, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

Okay, new house rule: new stuff must appear here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll do more if I can but never less often. Deal? Deal.

And today’s Nifty Link comes courtesy of LRC (as so much does these days, at least to me): The Stephen’s Guide Index of Logical Fallacies, which is not the most complete list on the planet, but for yokels like me (and perhaps you, although I’m sure you’re smarter than I am which is why you are out there living a glamorous and exciting life and I’m here typing at this stupid keyboard when I should be clearing out the monthly serials claims folder) it’s very cool indeed, with a well-defined all-text structure and complete explanations of all the most common logical fallacies I learned about when I took public speaking in college. And it’s a million times more accessible than any logic textbook I have ever encountered, which probably means that I need to read even more than I do already, which is sad enough, since reading is why I’m not living as exciting a life as you are, which brings us back to why I’m typing this here and you’re not (though you are reading it . . . hmmm . . . you may not be quite as glamorous as I’d originally thought . . . oh, heck, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here and say that you’re exceptionally, amazingly, agonizingly glamorous and popular and brilliant, which is why I hate you to pieces and often spend my nights curled up in a ball in my apartment sobbing under the covers.)

Be warned: this page took forever to load on my PC (it’s mostly text, so I’m not sure why that should be); your mileage may vary.

Enjoy!

The State and Future of NOPL

October 11, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

I’d heard that the New Orleans Public Library was in deep trouble, more from the city’s intent to shutter it than anything that Hurricane Katrina did. I’d wanted details, though, so I went to Google news, put "New Orleans Public Library" into the search field, clicked on the patented (if not then soon, I’m sure) Ye Olde Magic SEARCH Buttonne and got four completely contradictory results. That is, the results were fine, the stories they pulled up were contradictory.

First I got this one, "Purchasing Guide Good Start in getting N.O. Library Back Up" from 2theadvocate.com, dated October 9.

October 10 edition of Library Journal carried this one: "New Orleans to Slash Jobs; Library Likely to Suffer". Note that I’m not disputing the veracity of the headline (seeing as how libraries always suffer when tax revenue collapses), I’m just wondering how timely it is.

The reason I’m wondering is that way back (comparitively speaking) on October 7, American Libraries Online published this tidbit titled "New Orleans Public Library Services Terminated."
It’s an ugly, ugly headline but if it comes earlier than the other articles–if the place was officially terminated, why was the buying guide issued? ANd this particular article sort of makes the Library Journal story redundant, doesn’t it?

Or does it? That’s when I foud this gem, also from ALAO: "Retired New orleand Public Library StafferWins Big in Casino":

"A 30-year veteran of the New Orleans Public Library, who had moved to
Opelousas, Louisiana, to stay with family after Hurricane Katrina left
her homeless last month, won $1.6 million at a casino October 4 after
spending only $4.25 in a Wheel of Fortune game.

Jacquelyn Sherman, who had worked at the East New Orleans Regional and
Nora Navra branches before retiring about 10 years ago, stopped at the
Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino in Opelousas with her sister
Clarissa to try her luck at the casino games. “She told me that if I
needed her she would be at the Wheel of Fortune machine,” Clarissa said
in the October 6 Opelousas Daily World. “I received a
hysterical call from her telling me that she wanted me to meet her at
the machine. When I arrived, she was surrounded by security guards. The
first thing I asked her was, ’Did you break these people’s machine?’”"

Maybe Ms. Sherman can help the library out a bit?

All About The Flu

October 6, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

I’m not seeing much reporting on what might be one of the most interesting (and alarming) medical stories of the year: scientists have recreated (under tightly controlled conditions) the 1918 Influena virus that killed anywhere from 50 million to 100 million people world wide, depending on who you listen to. The NY Times had this story. The journal Foreign Affairs carried a better article by Michael T. Osterholm , titled "Preparing for the Next Pandemic", which, because it’s meant to be read by people with a higher than 6th grade reading level, has a much more comprehensive view on both that particular strain of flu and the nature of the flu virus in general.

And that is that. The CDC has their general flu web page up, the World Health Organization has theirs as well, but has this page devoted to the Avian Flu too; Science Daily carried this story about the 1918 virus resurrection, but as far as general discussion goes, not a peep. I’m hoping that this is due to my lousy research skills, and not the far more frightening idea that nobody gives half a hump about the topic.

I’ll keep looking (and hoping) but please feel free to send articles my way.

Update: I came across this story from BusinessWeek and this (more alarmist) article from Bill Sardi care of LRC.com. I’ll keep looking.

Emergency Record Management 101

October 3, 2005 by Jon Frater 1 Comment

I found this article, titled "How to prepare for One really Quick Getaway" in today’s NY Times. It’s not the most comprehensive word on managing records, as it deals only with people’s personal situation: household finances for the most part, which is, of course, a far cry from the comparatively serious record management needs of even a small business. And, of course, nothing compares to the massive record keeping needs of even a small institution with 50+ employees. Having said that, this article hits the important points, makes mention of a variety of cheap yet high-tech solutions to record storage, and suggests what you and your family should be keeping track of on a yearly (semi-yearly?) basis. The main thrust is toward what happens if you need to bug out NOW! in the face of a Katrina-like emergency rather then just what happens if you happen to not come home today.

Worth a look; the text is below the link.

Researching Urban Legends

September 29, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

Shirl Kennedy lists several nifty research sites in today’s Resource Shelf post:

"Natural disasters, stratospheric gas prices, a messy war in Iraq that
goes on and on, two Supreme Court nominations on the line, evolution
versus "intelligent design," privacy-threatening security breaches,
and a whole raft of other social issues creating divisiveness in
society... Is it just me, or does it seem like the number of rumors
and hoaxes flying around the Internet is reaching critical mass? My
current personal favorite? Killer dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico,
freed from a Naval research facility by the wrath of Hurricane
Katrina. Not that I really have time to go to the beach anyhow...

It's probably a good time to review some of the sites on the Web where
you can go to check this stuff out before forwarding it along to 100
of your closest friends. (And don't we all have friends like this who
are eager to "share" with us?)"

Click here for the full post.

Library Thing

September 28, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

I’m sure there’s a ton of librarians and library support folks out there who’ve known all about Library Thing for week, months, now. I admit I just found out about it by meand of this testimonial from Andy’s website:

‘Judy: “Have you already found Library Thing? I think it’s pretty cool – a way to catalog
your library online. A while back I considered buying a cataloging program but
they seemed too expensive and/or too complex for my purposes but this is really
cool. It’s in BETA and you can list up
to 200 books free or pay a lifetime fee of ten bucks for unlimited listing. All sorts of neat features.’"

So I went, I signed in (anybody can sign in, all you need is a user name and a password and the app create a customizable profile for you), and I got permission to catalog 200 books (you’re given an empty work space to use as you like) according to title, author, date, XML tags, include comments or share records with others. (A paid account costs $10 for the priviledge of cataloging as many books as you want, and apparently never needs to be renewed.) All but the Comments fields are hyperlinkable to other records.

One tab link that stood out was "extras". That one leads to some pretty nifty stuff: there’s a javascript editor that lets you write and style "Widgets" which update in real time and you can paste into the HTML on your own blog. You can also export all your records to CSV files if you want to make Excel spreadsheets of your work, and design "Amazon bookmarklets" which lets you import records from Amazon.com once you’ve found a book to your liking.

Speaking of blogs, Library Thing has its own, also viewable on their website.

The Library Thing Zetgeist (another tab) has a collection of links leading to the 25 largest libraries, the most recent users and books added to the site, the top 25 books, and the top 25 tags that people have used (it look like they rank according to frequency of use), not to mention top 25 authors and books added in the last hour.

Searching is a little mimited for my taste but it works pretty well: search according to book title, tag, or user, and in each case you have the option of searching your little corner of Library Thing (your libraries or you tags) or the whole database.

From what little I’ve seen, it’s not a bad resource at all.

Back Up Data Early & Often

September 19, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

I found this article from Robert Ringer in my mailbox this past weekend and it’s ajust a short reminder that accidents do happen, both in libraries and in our personal lives. The moral is both concise and bears repeating: back up your data. Often. In a number of different media. In a number of different locations.

Disasters Really Do Happen

If
I’ve learned anything at all in my life, it’s that disasters really do
occur. I’ve always been amazed at how most people live their lives on
the assumption that worst-case scenarios haven’t yet been invented.

Stuff from Factcheck.org

September 16, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

Factcheck.org, which is one of my five favorite research-oriented websites, has just composed a surprisingly complete timeline of what happened in the days preceding and following Katrina:

Katrina: What Happened When

They state right up front that it will take months to get past all the bluster and B.S., but it’s a pretty decent resource, and I trust these guys’ judgement quite a lot.

Katrina News Source Update

September 16, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

This is from the NYAM Info Notes blog:

NIEHS Launches Website with global info system for assessing environmental hazards from Hurricane Katrina

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
NIH News
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, September 9, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Bruske, 919-541-3665, rmackar@niehs.nih.gov
NIEHS LAUNCHES WEBSITE WITH GLOBAL INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS FROM HURRICANE KATRINA

Secrets of the Mummy’s Medicine Chest

September 11, 2005 by Jon Frater Leave a Comment

Secrets of the Mummy’s Medicine Chest

The link leads to an article about the NYAM’s 4,00 year old medical papyrus ( officially the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, the oldest surving medical document in the world) which is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their exhibit "The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt". (this from yesterday’s New York Times.) It’s a good artivle with photos and everything (very high-quality photos.) For those of you who don’t care for photos, I clipped the article text and hid it behind the cut below. (No photos, but that’s what the link is for.)

Good stuff, folks.

N’Awlins vs. Katrina

September 7, 2005 by Jon Frater 1 Comment

There’s already tons of material available on the web regarding New Orleans vs. Katrina, so I won’t post it here. Except for a few choice tidbits that I found:

SciGuy’s science blog had these immortal (and not a littl creepy considering how things turned out) words from Mark Twain words about Men Vs. The Mississippi River.

Dottie Hiebing recently posted this note from Ray LaFever of the New York State Archives this message on METRO-L:

"The damage/destruction to cultural and
historical institutions in Louisiana pales next to the incredible human
suffering, but we worry about them none-the-less. The American Association of
Museums is developing pages on its website to report on museums affected by
Hurricane Katrina and recovery efforts."

One thing I noticed over the weekend trying to locate resources on the library collections in the city is that 90% of their websites were simply not responding to queries. That’s starting to change now as servers come back online but it’ll probably be a while before they’re back in force. I did hear that the staff of Tulane U. moved most of the first floor collection onto upper floors in the building before the waters came, and Cornell U. has been helping them out. Inside Higher Ed News has a bit more on Katrina-displaced students.

Actually, most of the on-line articles I’ve found have to do with the hit the U.S. economy will take because of the wrecked oil rigs in the Gulf Region . . . they generally ignore the real point, though which is that New Orleans is the biggest port in the United States. I’ll say it again: New Orleans is the biggest port in the United States. George Friedman points out just what that implies for our active living lives even here on the east coast.