Jon Frater

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Jon Frater

Take The Red Pill

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I was turned on to a site named Why-US.org this morning. It’s not a proper library-oriented site (except maybe in the most abstract way) but regardless of the author’s lefty politics (and badly overusing his movie references), it’s not a bad little site which should probably be listed as a resource for those who do reserach, or are learning how to do research.

The reason I say this is because he keeps repeating a mantra for research, wherein one asks oneself three questions:

  • Is this true?
  • How can I find out?
  • Why have I never heard this before?

This is not a bad way to get started, IMO. Obviously, there’s more to it: scanning the literature, noting the primary and secondary sources, seeking out competing (non-confiming) data, evaluating data sources, etc. But (also IMO) getting started is the worst part.

Anyway, take a look.

Librarian Stands Up to FBI

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Librarian Stands up to FBI

I’m not going to comment on this. I don’t think I need to comment, except to quote:

"I really didn’t realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group. They are subversive. You think they are just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They’re, like, plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn’t mess with them."

Thank you, Michael Moore.

To Infinity and Beyond!

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Call me a grand total nerd if you must (Lord knows others have–and they’ve been right) but I think that the fact that Voyager 1 is now approaching the heliosheath–the beginning of interstellar space for you non-nerds–is hands down the most amazing science story since Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel figured out that there really was a consistent method life used to transfer physical characteristics from one generation to the next.

I was 11 years old when this machine–very possibly the best machine any team of humans have ever designed and built, considering that it’s now 8.7 billion miles away and not only does it still work, but it still has power and transmits data back to us–and nobody in my family had any clue that 26 years later we’d be reading about it preparing to leave the solar system. Back then, astronomy was, well, simpler. There were 9 planets. Jupiter had 12 moons, Saturn had 9. Men had walked on the moon and plans were in the works for moon bases and probes to the asteroid belt. Plans for the Enterprise-class STS fleet had been finalized by NASA and space stations would be built in the next decade.

Well, as predictions go, those weren’t all bad ones: NEAR has been sent out to see what’s what, and Near Earth Asteroids are now real targets of study; the gas giants have dozens of moons, and we’re constantly wondering whether Pluto should be reclassified as an asteroid (planetoid?) The STS fleet has had major setbacks–trouble is that there are no real plans to replace them (not that I know of–please someone write to tell me I’m wrong!)

On the other hand, space is still big–really big, and light may not be the fastest speed; heck, light may be slowing down and the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate due to dark energy. We know so much about the universe there there are literally no computers big enough to crunch the data in less than a lifetime. Particle physics has shown us just how primitive our mathematics are, and until they improve, we won’t know if there are more than 10 dimensions or 10,000. The universe is incredible and probably unknowable. And for the first time we have a real sense of just how crazy the whole thing is . . . that’s the sort of stuff that should frighten any sane person. Einstein is on record as having said that the most important question to be answered was whether or not the universe is a friendly place. Personally, I think it’s not–but I’m a teensy bit paranoid. On the other hand, I realize that the universe, having lit a fire under our chemistry about 4.5 billion years ago, has been trying to kill us pretty much since that day and hasn’t succeeded yet. Yet. In the meantime, I think we’re pushing our luck.

Anyway, if it does succeed, then I expect that Voyager 1 will still be hanging around somewhere in (or past) the heliosheath, in some form, circling the solar system in an ever-widening orbit, carrying the combined greetings of the human race in 55 languages and instructions on how to listen to them.

Even if there’s nobody out there to hear them, that’s just plain cool.

The CDC Yellow Book

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We just got in a free copy of the 2005-2006 Health Information for International Travel book (a.k.a. the CDC Yellow Book) by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. I admit I haven’t looked it over very carefully (it’s been very hectic today), but from what I’ve glanced at, it appears to be very complete and very well thought-out and planned. And it’s got complete information of vaccinations, preventive medicine, diet, water supplies, etc. Not a bad thing to have in a medical or health library by any means. 

Google Scholar in BusinessWeek

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This week’s BusinessWeek magazine has an article that just firms up my belief that GoogleScholar can, in fact, deliver what it promises (eventually) but it’ll likely be a huge hole down which the company will have to pour more  cash and energy than they anticipated.

In essence: the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) sent Google a letter on May 20 that blasted them for massive copyright infringement, or their intention to commit such, anyway. (The letter in question is posted here.)

My question to Google is "WTF guys? You’re not stupid or incompetent . . . did anybody do their homework at HQ? If not, why not? And if so, then what led y’all to think this would be a non-issue?"

Just wondering.  I expect Google will figure out something eventually and get some kind of permissions to proceed with this plan, but (as I said and will keep saying) I think they’ve got a steep learning curve ahead of them. For all that, I wish them luck and hope they can pull this off.

Getting Over Book Guilt

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There are so many great classics – so many books you’ve heard of that you wish you’d read. Fact is, a lot of them aren’t good… or at least they’re not good for you at this particular point in your life. Here are some tips from Steve Leveen, author of "The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life", to help you get over the guilt of never having read "War and Peace":

—If you’re 50 pages into the book and still not hooked, put it down. Maybe you give it the heave-ho, maybe you save it for another time. But it’s not your fault if the author didn’t write a book that grabs you.

—Learn to discern between literary pretentiousness and books that are actually worth reading. Maybe the book just made the list of classics because it was groundbreaking for its time. That doesn’t mean you’re illiterate for not having read it.

—Establish a shelf of "maybe later" books. If a book doesn’t appeal to you now, perhaps it will down the road – when you’re traveling or are in a different state of mind.

(Source: Rachel Sauer, writing in The Palm Beach Post)

A Word to the Wise Librarian

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Things are someplace between late and never today. While not one to place blame on the tools of the trade, my PC at work was laid low by the RBot-I virus (I think), which worked its way through our branch of the internet this morning. Sophos caught it, but not before this thing had crawled deep into my hard drive, infected 10 different files, and froze my CPU almost solid.

Part of the problem (our very capable IT folks told me) was that the macro that usually updated my Windows 2K service packs had been shut off for some unknown (and, damn it, unknowable) reason, so the security upgrade I should have gotten last week never arrived. Which meant—in that cascading way that PC networks tend to follow—that the one hole in my security was exactly the one that the cretin who sent this bomblet my way was hoping to exploit. I’m not suggesting this jerk had me specifically in mind . . . mine was the only PC in the Technical Resources department to get swiped, but one in Access and two in the Rare Book Room got hit as well.

Anyway, Sophos lit a red flag at around 9.30 this morning, and work on the machine started shortly after. By that time my machine was badly infected and any work that had to be done on it (substantial to say the least) took several times as long as it might have on an uninfected PC. By ten o’clock it was clear that the security updates hadn’t arrived as expected . . . the IT guys I spoke to finally decided to delete the previous service packs and reinstall the newest one. The entire process of deleting the old files, downloading the upgrade, and installing the new files lasted until well after one in the bloody afternoon. (Say goodbye to the morning, Gracie.)

At half past one or so, I restarted the machine and it worked well enough. Then the IT guys logged into my PC by remote control and set Sophos scanning the hell out of my local hard drive, which took until just before four o’clock, whereupon 10 infected files were identified and killed. By that time, I’d passed up any opportunity for real work here . . . although I did have the chance to update about ten volumes of the New York City Rules & regulations: unlike 90% of what I do on a daily basis, like cataloging, serials management, or database management, replacing pages of the NYCRR takes only patience, attention to detail, and a bunch of trips into the stacks.

A word to the Wise Librarian . . . make sure your system service packs and virus definitions update regularly and on schedule.

And yes, this is why I haven’t updatted anything of worth today. But the weekend approacheth and with it, some free time. Tomorrow, Civil Liberties for sure . . .

Google SFX

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I know, I know . . . I promised Civil Liberties . . . I’m typing the notes out as I write this in another window on my desktop, and if I don’t get to posting the whole thing tonight, I might poat par tonight and part tomorrow, where I’ve finally cleared my desk enough to dovote most of my lunch hour to writing here.

I did, however, come across this tidbit on SFX, which is Ex Libris’s answer to linking to Google Scholar’s full text files via an Open URL link resolver. It’s not a bad setup if you haven’t already decided on a link resolver for your library and you’re really looking forward to subscribing to Google’s new service. At the Academy, we’ve only just finished implementing Serials Solutions for our F/T subscriptions, and in a few days, we’ll begin the real work of implementing LFPSS as our Open URL link resolver. And they’re pretty nifty services–I’m especially fond of the Overlap Analysis and Usage stats that Serials Solutions makes available.

Civil Liberties and Google Scholar

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I know I promised to post a bunch of stuff on the Civil Liberties workshop run by METRO and Brooklyn College, and I will. Tomorrow. But it’s also MLA in San Antonio, Texas this week, which means that my bosses are all out of the office, which leaves me in charge of the Tech Services department at the Academy. If that’s not enough to frighten you, I’m not sure what is.

In any case, it means my lunch hour doesn’t stretch as far as once it did, so I have to compose and post everything that gets sent here from my apartment. Which, I want to point out, I was perfectly willing to do, except that my notes from the conference inevitably found their ways into my desk at work which means that I waltzed out of the building to my weekly tutoring job without taking them out of the desk.

Details. Bah!

In the meantime, I just got done reading how Ex Libris is going to mate SFX with Google Scholar . . . but I’m no further toward understanding how they’re going to do this now than I was when Google made the announcement. I have no doubt that Google can do what they say the intend to do, but I still wonder if they haven’t seriously underestimated just how much work and money they’ll have to invest to make it happen. Time, as they say, will tell.

Anyway, tomorrow, I write about last week’s conference. I promise.

Worldcat Love & the BiblioblatherBlog

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A coworker mentioned the Biblioblather Blog to me at lunch, and, being the inquisitive type of paranoiac that I am, I tuned in and found a really nifty string of links. Not the least ofwhich is one to WorldCat Lookup which the Biblioblatherblogger has already described in prose so exemplary, I could only chew my own spleen in hate and envy at this person (who I don’t even know) who obviously writes so much better than I do, and who, I’ll just bet, does not have procelain laminate orthodonture that broadcasts their every move to the CIA, like mine does.

At any rate (and I suppose I’ll have to forgive the Biblioblathering person for writing better than I do, although it pains me mightily) I’m putting this into the Library Blog Typelist for y’all. Enjoy!

Enrich Your Active Reading Life!

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I picked this article up from Michael Masterson’s Early to Rise newsletter. (Masterson has written a few books, none of which I have read–yet–but I get his newsletter delivered to my mailbox every morning, and so far that’s a decision I’ve been happy with.)  I won’t say that it’s applicable to absolutely everyone, but he writes about an approach to reading that makes a ton of sense to me. Personally, I’ve long been in the habit of just plugging book titles and authors into my Amazon.com wish list as soon as I come across them . . . but until my monthly income gets a little higher there’s no way to keep up with the flood of stuff I’d like to buy if I had the cash for it. Luckily, Amazon.com lets people buy used books from other folks, which saves a lot of cash, and a library card handles a few other wants & needs, so it’s not an impossible situation, merely an inconvenient one.

One thing to be aware of: Masterson is ultimately a salesman, and his newsletter is filled with sales tips. I actually think his article reads like a sales pitch . . . and, I suppose it is, in a way. He’s pushing reading to people. I don’t mind the technique because Iagree with the aim. Other might, but, well . . . think about this. Pushing reading is something that too few parents a teachers do, so we librarians had better be involved somehow with the process of introducing folks who are not in the habit of reading for fun or enrichment. The ugly truth is that if we don’t, we’re putting ourselves out of business. And let’s face it: we’ll be putting the communities our libraries serve out of business, too. Just my humble opinion, mind you.

Now, for a bit of disclosure: I actually e-mailed Masterson to get his permission to post the article here, and my mail was returned "Undeliverable" by the server. I tried a second time and got the same result. I like to think this is a temporary situation between Masterson and his ISP, so I’m going to keep trying. And if for some reason I can’t, and he sees this article here and tells me to take it down, I will. Having said that, here’s the article.

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Personal Liberties in the Age of Terrorism

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Here’s a conference for librarians who find themselves both in the NYC metropolitan area and interested in the state of civil liberties: “Personal Liberties in the Age of Terrorism”, which being hosted by the New York Metropolitan Library Council (METRO to you Visigoths) on May 13 from 9:00am – 2:30pm at the Brooklyn College Library. They’re advertising attendances by civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel, Daniel Lyons from the FBI, and Marcia Hoffman from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, so this is likely to be a lot of fun. I already signed up for it, as this is a field of intense concern for me (if you couldn’t guess by my letter to the NRO last week).

The conference description is here.

The METRO (all right, so I’m a Visigoth) registration link is here.

And I’ll post a bit about what I learn there next week.

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