Articles & Nifty Links

I found this tidbit byBruce Silver in the Intelligent Enterprise. The article is titled "Content in the Age of XML" and since I work with XML issues on a more or less daily basis I figured it’d be something to look at. I was kind of hoping that Silver had something usefult o say on the subject of utilizing XML-centric database models to help manage content, but that’s not where the article goes. Having said that, he raises a few good questions–and then fails to answer them very effectively. Oh, well. Anyway, the piece is short, so happy reading.

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.

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.

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.

A coworker turned me on to an article by Dan Akst in the most recent Carnegie Reporter. The article is entitled “Do Libraries Still Matter?”, and one would hope that the answer to the question is still ‘yes!” although one can also see the questioners point of view. It’s definitely worth looking at, and not just because the author gets heavily into Andrew Carnegie’s contribution to American library development. There’s a rule of thumb for you: capitalists like libraries and everything (well, many things) they represent, totalitarians do not. The next time you hear a politician talking about reducing funds for libraries or limiting how they may be used and by whom, remember that little rule and much becomes clearer.

I subscribe to the technical service librarians listserv that Margaret Mauer runs off of Ohio’s Kent State U. servers, and while I rarely post, it’s always interesting to see what librarians halfway across the country (well, okay a third of the way, but that’s kind of wordy) are doing differently from those of us in NYC. Today’s Great Tidbit was posted by Ian Fairclough from the Marion, OH Public Library this morning.

Read it, print it out, share it with your coworkers . . . this one’s a keeper.

In Praise of Library Personnel by George G. Morgan

Welcome to the April 2005 issue of the Academy Library Newsletter. The newsletter is published quarterly to keep you updated on our products and services, changes the library collection and available resources, and other bits of interesting news.

We’d like to particularly draw your attention to the piece titled "New Publication Policy for NIH-Funded Research" as this may impact many of you who work on NIH-funded grant projects.

View the full text of the newsletter

Carol Vogel at the Times breaks it to art collectors everywhere: if you have $100 million burning a hole in your pocket, here’s you chance to difersify.

"The New York Public Library has decided to sell 19 works of art from its collection – including "Kindred Spirits," a widely admired landscape by the Hudson River School painter Asher B. Durand, and two seminal portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart – so that it can better compete in acquisitions of important books and collections."

Read the article here.

Found this article on Tomdispatch.com this afternoon . . .

"In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the USA Patriot Act, the following exchange took place between former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, now Attorney General, and Senator Arlen Specter (R., PA):

GONZALES: Mr. Chairman, let me, kind of, reassure the committee and the American people that the department has no interest in rummaging through the library records or the medical records of Americans.

That is not something that we have an interest in.

SPECTER: Does that mean you’d agree to excluding them?

GONZALES: We do have an interest, however, in records that may help us capture terrorists. And there may be an occasion where having the tools of 215 to access this kind of information may be very helpful to the department in dealing with the terrorist threat.

The fact that this authority has not been used for these kinds of records means that the department, in my judgment, has acted judiciously. It should not be held against us that we’ve exercised, in my judgment, restraint.

It’s comparable to a police officer who carries a gun for 15 years and never draws it. Does that mean that for the next five years he should not have that weapon, because he’s never used it?

SPECTER: Attorney General Gonzales, I don’t think your analogy is apt, but if you want to retain those records, as your position I understand. And let me move on. "

Read the full article here.

This is not the sort of thing one wants to see in the paper first thing in the morning, but it’s not the she sort of thing librarians can afford not to notice either. Anyway, here’s a link to the article and the text is behind the "Continue Reading" link.

[Read more…] about From Today’s NY Times

I’ve been away for a few days, but I’m back now.

I fell in love with FactCheck.org during the 2004 presidential race—it’s one of the few research sites that really does try to cut through the BS on bothsides of the aisle–and they’ve kept their work up since then, which I think is an amazing service to those of us who aren’t in the middle of national politics. You can sign up to have their bulletins posted directly to your email account.

Today’s article is worth a look: "A $5-million TV ad campaign by People for the American Way portrays the Senate filibuster as a noble tool of American democracy. The ad uses footage from Frank Capra’s classic 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" – a famous scene in which the hero, played by James Stewart, engages in a 23-hour filibuster to prevent his expulsion from the US Senate on trumped-up corruption charges.

Real-life filibusters are another matter, however. They can be used for good or evil. In fact, segregationist Southern senators used filibusters to preserve the poll tax and block civil rights and anti-lynching legislation for generations. Among the real-life practitioners were the late Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi."

Click here for the full article

[Read more…] about I Love FactCheck.org

Not too long ago, the NY Times ran a major article concerning the Malloch Rare Book Room at the Academy. The link is here, but you may have to register to read it. Enjoy!