Accept no substitutes

Month: February 2006 (Page 1 of 4)

Joan Didion – The Lecture

Just back from a moving reading by Joan Didion from her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, as part of her visit to UNC for the Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program. I’d read the book earlier. Sally gave it to me for Christmas which when I think of it is quite a odd book to be given. At that time, Sam Garrard had not died. We hadn’t been on our New Year’s walk at which a man about 10 year older than me rushed up the steep hill and fell dead just before we caught up with him. Before our friend and neighbor, David Galinsky was struck down crossing a poorly lit highway. Didion’s book is just right. As she answered questions, one was why did you write the book? To write your way out of grief? “No, I wrote it because I had some news to give.”

After that and a few other exchanges, an aggitated nicely dressed man in his say early 60s bent over the question mic. He started: “Why did you read for a book that any of us could have bought and read for ourselves? Why didn’t you prepare a lecture? I came for a lecture.” (silence)
JD: “Because this is billed as a reading. I was asked to give a reading. So of course I read.” (applause)
Man: “No. It was to be a lecture. I read it was a lecture.” (hisses as he walked the length of the completely filled Memorial Hall and vanished — I think into the night.)
I think he got a lecture, but not as he expected it.

I did check the various publicity and everywhere it said “reading.” Occassionally the word “lecture” also appears. Some times, the word “speak” is used.
As we say down in this neck of the woods, that guy “must not be from around here” or “Where did he get his raisings.”

Future of Library Collections? 2

More thoughts on my upcoming talk to the Librarians’ Association at UNC – Chapel Hill aka LAUNC-CH.

The upcoming challenges in collections will involve the increasingly digital nature of our lives. following on projects like Microsoft’s my life bits with Gordon Bell and the promise of curation of all kinds of digital personal repreesntations and artifacts of self from Google and Yahoo!, library collections will be faced with doing work that is substantially different than the kind of triage and brokering between publisher and reader.

Challenges will come not just in selection but in preservation and access across time as formats and rules for access change. One particularly tough problem for academic libraries will be to answer the requirement to
preserve datasets from various research groups for periods up to two decades. Think for a second, what data from 1986 can you access today? You see the problem immediately.

Location of collections will also be a challenge. Expect more artifacts to be found in professors’ offices or their computers or co-located on several networked locations.

[still thinking of course]

Illumination

I mentioned that I had just finished “Everything is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer. Almost immediately, Marcy wrote to ask what I thought of it. I don’t have time to give the book the review it deserves, but here are brief impressions: there is so much to like here: the style. the imagination. the smart way to recyle I B Singer’s magic visions, the deep look into the complex dreams and burdens of Eastern European youth. I cried several times many of those times from laughter. I too have owned a large friendly farting dog. But my ghosts are far less known, understood and remain unconfronted. One of the best books I’ve read in a while (and I’ve been on a tear through some very good books).

Tuesday: Blogging 101 with Anton and Brian

Anton Zuiker writes with this alert:

Join us for a technology teach-in. Learn about the history and development of weblogs, how to start your own blog in just 5 minutes, and how to read other blogs through theirnewsfeeds. We’ll also cover podcasts, wikis and other online communication tools. This free event is open to anyone who wants to learn about blogging. UNC staff Anton Zuiker and Brian Russell will lead.

* What: Blogging 101: Everything you need to knowabout weblogs, podcasts & newsfeeds.

* When: Tuesday, February 28, 12 noon – 1 p.m.

* Where: Health Sciences Library, Room 307-Biogen Classroom

* More Info: 919.966.2329 or www.blogtogether.org.

Can’t join us? Find local bloggers at the Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7 p.m. at 3CUPS coffeebar in the West End Courtyard.

Things done and things left undone

What a busy day! Much more that I could do needed to be done. First off to church where Tucker as acolyte and a very literary and seasonally appropriate sermon included not only a reference to most of the mountain peaks of importance in Scripture but also a description of being driven up one by a one armed taxi driver and a reading of Hopkins’ “Windhover.”
Then Tucker to Odyssey of the Mind and Sally and I to the David Galinsky Memorial Service. Friends completely filled the School of Social Work auditorium for the service which included music from the Triangle Tuba Quartet and remembrances by David’s former students and collegues.
We missed the Steven Silverleaf art show opening at Tyndall Galleries.
Later, after picking up Tucker, we spent some time with the Galinsky family.
Then I went by the home of some friends who are members of a local Samba School who are revving up for Carnaval in the Brazillian style. I managed to catch a little of the jazz on WCOM as I drove and got to hear of little of Ed Paolantonio‘s in-studio interview with Melva Okun.
In my spare time, I finished the Sunday NY Times Crossword (only one cup of coffee needed this Sunday) and finished reading “Everything is Illuminated”

Chris Roush of UNC on Blogs at NCPA

Chris RoushChris’ does TalkingBiz News blog. Asks who blogs in the newsroom. 2 types of blogs – portals and aggregators as one and opinion blogs as the other. “You have to offer the reader something new and not in the newspaper already” He loves the NandR Bizbuzz blog. Filling in beyond the news hole. A bit about Branding and the power of journalists at a branded newspaper blog. What tech do you use? He isn’t using a computer for his talk. The beauty of the blog is the simplicity. He’s only critic comment is no images — but he’s not right. He blogs at least one entry per day. 100o readers per day. Editing? Who edits it? Only one paperperson here edits blogs. He pitches for editing to avoid slander and libel etc as well as better clearer writing. He himself uses a grad student to edit his own posts [for content or for copy? – pj]. End of objectivism as opinion enters blogs? Is the the same as having a reporter be a columnist? What if a journalist is writing a story and using email to a source and then the source posts the ?s and responses on the web (in a blog). He talks about the Business Week case that’s on Chris’ blog. How do you manage your sources in this environment? Since so many of us are blogging what happens? [I do this of course — see several posts here – pj]. I wish I had he handout that Chris has given out. He’s talking about the place of opinion on blogs. He asks Elliot (a publisher) about his blog. E says he writes about a reporter conversation on his own blog (like the Business Week instance). Need to bring up Dan Gilmor. E says the everyday posting is important. Chris talks about paying bloggers. A bit about revenue streams.

Ken Rogerson of Duke on Podcasting at NCPA

He had one of the iPod grants at Duke a year ago. At this year’s debriefing, “there is no such thing as a regular iPod — now video iPod, Nano, etc” Are podcasting journalists? Complains about media overload. Now admits that he was once a reporter but then fell into academia. Trad vs New media. In which New means everything from Cable to using your Blackberry. Newspapers now do multimedia. Digital only and those that are mixed with physical. Salon now owned by WashPost which he says makes it have an offline component. A bit about a portal site like Drudge that aggregates (and comments on). Rather as having fallen to bloggers. Now on IndyMedia (hosted on ibiblio.org). What is news and are they reporters? A look at the indymedia.org Is Bill O’Reilly or John Stewart a journalist? Data smog complaint. A bit about the Yes Men with out naming them shows Gatt.com. Now “Tuned Out” why college students don’t watch the news. Show IFRA news of the future from 2000.
98% of the podcasts aren’t news, he says. A bit on John Stewart.
Finally to podcasting. No headlines but news analysis. Podcasting just another tool. Wired (March 2005)’s End of Radio article [hee hee remember their Long Boom issue just before the .com collapse -pj]. Pitches branding and tech integration.

David Jarmal of Duke at NCPA

David is from the Duke New Bureau and is discussing RSS. He uses the personalized Google page with a lot of RRS feeds mostly of publications local and national. He points out that he doesn’t really go to the home pages of these publications, but that he builds his “personal newspaper.” Showing Charlotte Observer feeds page, NandO’s, WashPost, News and Record, etc. But now about personal publishing via RSS shows NCSU , UNC and Duke have feeds as does the NC Zoo. Next an aggregator. A mention of Tagging. Now about how Duke can use RSS to aggregate campus news sites like depts, schools, police etc.
Presenting about jobs and auto sales in the context of classifieds. Now Greensboro.com and personal blogs. He pops over to NPR and UFla for podcasts, Eat Food, and University Channel (at Princeton).
Is News Free? A bit about branding and about how articles stand on their own. Faster news cycle. Not geo-constricted. Alternative content sources challenge but also collaboration.

Jones alerts Parents!

Well, not exactly if you read what I said and if the tape captured my tone. The little piece that I did with NBC 17 went live last night.
Some things are accuate ;-> Not my rank and title. The headline doesn’t actually match the story. But overall the right message is there (somewhere).
The basics are right. People put more on FaceBook that maybe they would if they thought about what they were doing. Parents should educate their children (not necessarily “monitor” them as the headline reads). The ALA has helpful guidelines.
Off to the NC Press Association.

Carnaval Brazilla – This weekend!

Heating up the town as we approach Mardi Gras. Mary Overby alerts us to opportunities to samba and more this weekend:

Friday Feb 24 8 PM – 11 PM
Live Brazilian Jazz with Eduardo DeSouza
Brasa Brazilian Steak House
8551 Briar Creek Parkway
Raleigh, NC
544-3344

Saturday Feb 25 11 PM
NC Capoeira
at Talullas on West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC
$5 Cover
Capoeira Demonstration and Brazilian Music DJ
SAMBA, PAGODE, FORRO!
CAIPIRINHAS (Brazilian Martinis)

The other Fedora (or is it the Real Fedora?)

Thorny Staples is here talking about Fedora which stands for “Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture”. A more formal talk later today. Flexible. Extensible. Object repository scheme. Formalized workflow via Fez and Fedora. What about preservation asks the local library folks. Thorny talks about long term cooperation and planning for changes and helping develop standards. ITS guy talks of Forbes article on the importance of digital preservation.

From the Forbes article end:

The Internet Archive’s Kahle sees easy access to data as digital preservation’s ultimate rationale.”Access,”he says, “drives preservation.” As the issues get sorted out, the real achievement of digital preservation may turn out to be in collaboration with the World Wide Web–opening up heretofore hidden realms of information to the genealogists, historians, scientists, authors, musicians and videographers of today and tomorrow.

Dspace v Fedora. IR clients like Fez promoted. Different federated searches and indexes promoted.

What is Fedora’s culture asks Wallace. Thorny says folks who are already putting effort into websites and other repositories and had programmers on staff. A staff of say three using Fez could do a pretty good job says T.

Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories

Thorny’s public talk upcoming
When: Thursday, February 23, 2006. 3:30-4:30.
Where: Carolina (Student) Union, Room 3411

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