Monday, October 18, 2004

The Pixillated Representation of the Sky is Falling!

Finnish scientist Dr. Hannu Kari of Helsinki University of Technology recently reiterated his prediction that the Internet would collapse by 2006. The collapse will be precipitated by increased incidences of viruses, spam, trojan horse and security breaches. The professor warns that the only effective prophylactic to these cyber-diseases is increased individual and collective vigilance and exposing of nefarious plots.

Whether Dr. Kari's arguments are persuasive or not remains to be seen. But since more and more libraries have grown Internet dependent, a contingency plan needs to be developed ASAP. I propose the maintenance of a cadre of "Network-Independent Analog Information Devices" which will insulate libraries from cyber-attacks and Internet outages. These low-power devices are portable and readily available in a variety of subject packets. Generally, no special instruction of patrons is needed for their operation beyond that provided in most elementary and middle schools. These devices carry with them some storage and distribution concerns, but have proven to be reliable for long-term information preservation.

Of course, the NIAIDs I refer to are commonly known as books. The network is down; would you care to read a book?

[via ArsTechnica]

Friday, October 15, 2004

A Swimming Pool of Serials

Duke University Press's recent decision to withdraw several of its journals from Project Muse raises several questions of the viability of individual publications, and of group efforts like Project Muse. From Duke's perspective, it would seem that they think they can generate more revenue outside of Project Muse than by staying within it. Of course, they will have to market their journals (individually or collectively), as well as arrange for indexing, delivery, archiving and the like. These are difficulties, but not insurmountable ones. The real question is, in the era of the "big deal," will Duke's offerings, no matter how high their quality, be viable to academic subscribers? Will it be a choice between Duke and Project Muse, given that funds are limited? If so, which one wins?

From Project Muse's perspective, their mission just got a little tougher, in that they lost some of their premium content. So Project Muse is now less valuable in the eyes of the academic subscriber as well.

240,000 8oz. glasses of water will fill the average swimming pool. But you can't swim until you pour them together. The power of the database is in its COMBINED content. Federated searching technology may allow individual titles to be virtually combined ("poured together"), but that dream has yet to be fully realized. Publishers and librarians need only look as far as the major search engines: people use them because of their ability to harvest content from a wide array of sources. Databases help users do that too, sometimes with the bonus of additional focus, selection and distillation. Individual publications, sadly, do not.

[via Resource Shelf and Peter Scott's Library Blog]

Thursday, October 14, 2004

An Idea Idea Idea Idea Whose Time Has Come

WestLaw has announced a de-duplication feature that identifies, tags and sorts duplicate copies of articles in its search results.

[Via WisBlawg]

Google Print: Warts and Beauty Marks

More information is emerging about Google Print, Google's "inside the book" endeavor. Google has announced that Google Print is a book marketing tool; it has no intention of linking to library holdings. [Wart] On the other hand, Library Journal and School Library Journal are publications available through Google Print [Beauty]. Check out more forensic information on Google Print at: "The Rundown on Google Print" [via librarian.net]

Visualizing Research

In a 13 page white paper entitled "Online Research Browsers", Marcus P. Zillman, Executive Director - Virtural Private Library(tm), examines a number of research oriented browsers that help the user visualize relationships between related sites. In addition to descriptions of and links to various browsers, Zillman lists about 3 pages of links to Virtual Private Library(tm)'s Subject Tracer(tm) Information Blogs, topic-specific collection points available for RSS syndication.

This paper provides fertile ground for further study.
[via BeSpacific]

Something You Just Don't See Every Day

A refreshing view on intellectual curiosity:
"Moving between fields is the way to be creative. Keep your fingers in a lot of pies. I do it because I'm curious. I'm the only person I know who goes into a poster session [at a scientific meeting] and stops at the first poster I have no idea what it's about. Find a poster you don't know anything about and look at it for a long time, and you might learn something totally different." -- Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist Kary Mullis (from Creators on Creating.)

[via Anita Sharpe at Worthwhile]

Cool Tool: YouSendIt

Many people face the constraints of their email systems when trying to send or receive large files. YouSendIt allows the sender to upload megafiles (up to 1 GB), with the service sending only a link to the intended recipient. After 7 days, the service deletes the file. The result? No email file size restrictions. Best of all, it's free. [via Robin Good]

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

The Economics of Helping

Librarians, by job design and by nature, are helpers. We give of our intellect, drive and persistence to our patrons in search of the right materials, or the proper answer. Our involvement enables our patrons to select their next steps: to stay on the current path or to take the fork in the road. This transaction, be it through reference, acquisitions or cataloging, has value. Without us, people wouldn't get as far as fast down their road, or wouldn't even be on the right road. Their research wouldn't be as complete or accurate, their insights wouldn't be as keen. The $64,000 question is: how should this help be valued?

The value of help has always been difficult to quantify. Absent an explicit charge ("The Doctor is In. Questions: 5 cents") or a gratuity (TIP = To Insure Progress), rarely is a value assigned to the help a helper gives. Other helping professions have similar problems: teachers, nurses, public servants. Unfortunately, the lack of value imputed to helping transactions involving these professions makes it harder to attract new people into them, harder to retain skilled practitioners, and harder to motivate the helper to help.

Helpers don't generally enter the helping professions with designs on monetary power. However, failure to value the helping transaction accumulates into failure to value the helping institution. Once the institution is devalued, its long-term viability is threatened. Without the helping institution, individual helping transactions cannot be completed and the patrons are not propelled as quickly or directly down the right road. And everybody loses.

Economists might argue for taxes to cover opportunity costs or externalities, or for shadow pricing schemes. These may be desirable or even necessary. But sometimes a smile and a "thank you" would suffice.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Political Fact Flap

I'm not overly (or overtly) political, and often find the televised political "debates" to be theatre of the grotesque. But an interesting offshoot of this political season is the high profile the presidential/vice presidential debates have given the art of fact checking. One site, FactCheck.org, operated by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, has been drawn into the maelstrom by virtue of a misstep by VP Cheney in his debate with Sen. Edwards. Wrong URLs aside, the incident pointed out that many people do indeed seek the facts behind politicians' statements, and there are sources out there to aid them. Like the library. Perhaps libraries should advertise with yard signs and 30-second spots: "We [heart] fact checking. Our business since George chopped down the cherry tree. Or did he?"

Monday, October 11, 2004

Ohio is the Land of Milk and Honey?

OCLC has announced that it is opening its entire database of some 52 million records to web search engines like Google and Yahoo. In a masterful and extensive piece of work, Gary Price and Stephen Cohen analyze the facts that are known so far and make suggestions to the parties concerned. Of their suggestions, I'd really like to see OCLC's content crawled by Clusty, to bring some subject structure to the mammoth database. I believe this announcement will have momentous implications for OCLC, search engine companies, Internet searchers, and libraries. Stay Tuned!

Sunday, October 10, 2004

The Autograph Line Forms on the Right

Earlier this week, I was pleased, and a little humbled, to learn that Info Ediface was reviewed on Web Junction by Betha Gutsche. Other than registering the blog at a few directories, including LibDex, and putting my blog address in my email signature, I hadn't really marketed the site. Equally interesting to me was how interconnected the blog world is. I actually found out about the review through an RSS feed of LIS Blogsource, which refers to Michael Stephens' (Tame the Web) mention of the Web Junction article --"Tech Focused Library Blogs." I will be giving a talk for the WSU Student Chapter of SLA this Thursday entitled "Blogs and Blogging for Librarians--What's the Fuss?" so this should be a good illustration of the networking inherent in blogging.

Heady with this newfound cyber-fame, I self-googled Info Ediface to see what other fetid corners it had seeped into, if any. One of the first hits I saw was for a fascinating simulated stock market for blogs called BlogShares. My market cap wasn't too high, so I have some work to do before the IPO.

Vitruvius has left the building.

Wagging the Tail

From the "I thought it was just me department": In the October 2004 issue of Wired, Chris Anderson's article, "The Long Tail," shines a bright light on the economics of media distribution. Anderson points out that there is constant and continuing demand for the 99% of media titles (books, CDs, DVDs, etc.) that don't ever make it to your local Wal-Mart. With digital content online, the economics of delivery of the "other 99%" to the consumer is virtually identical to delivering the hits, and therefore savvy marketers appealing to a niche stand to make as much money, or more, than traditional media retailers. This article is chock full of interesting and thought provoking concepts. For example, Robbie Vann-Adibé, CEO of Ecast, a digital jukebox company whose players contain over 150,000 tracks, says that 99% of the top 10,000 titles sell/rent at least once per month. Most people assume only 20% do.

Lovers of klezmer music, Godfrey Reggio movies, and/or Dutch-born detective fiction authors rejoice! Your tastes are not strange affectations, but expected (and lucrative) minor detours from the main media highway.

Librarians have had a feel for these concepts for years, maintaining significant book collections and periodical backfiles against the day a patron would request the title. Will electronic resources enhance libraries' ability to deliver non-best sellers to their patrons? And to further surprise and delight their patrons with "just the right thing"?

This article is a must read. [via Joi Ito]

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Labelling Electronic Resources: Batteries Not Included

On Christmas Eve, some forty years ago, Santa delivered to me the object of my desire: Big Bruiser. Big Bruiser was a large white tow truck, a technological marvel of its time, with lights, sirens and motorized winches and cranes. I felt as if my heart would burst from excitement. Unfortunately, Big Bruiser needed some big batteries, and lots of them--more than we had in the house. So although I could play with my new toy, it wasn't quite as promised. Batteries were not included.

I can therefore sympathize with researchers who, upon finding that the library subscribes to an electronic resource, are met with the disappointment of not being able to obtain the article they seek. The look in their eyes reminds me of how I felt that Christmas. What do you mean it doesn't work? Why can't I get the article?

  • The citation was for a period outside the library's subscription

  • The publication is embargoed

  • The publisher wants you to pay cash for access to the article

  • The database does not include all articles from the publication

  • The database that was supposed to have the resource has since dropped it

  • The library's/database's/publisher's server is down

  • Your ID won't let you access the publication from a remote location

  • The database offers only the abstract of the article, not full text


Print resources create some of the same problems, but not usually with the frequency or rapidity of electronic resources. The next time you recommend an electronic resource to a patron, ask yourself: "Are batteries included?"

Friday, October 08, 2004

Sometimes It Is About the Size of the Seats

I was reading a story in today's New York Times that had absolutely nothing to do with libraries. It explored, at great length, the shrunken and shrinking size of seats in Broadway theatres. Yet, the more I think about it, the article has everything to do with today's libraries. Ostensibly, the play's the thing; theatergoers are there for the content. But their experience is hampered by the inadequate physical infrastructure of aging theatres. Library patrons come to the library for its content. Is their experience lessened by their surroundings? Lack of space tailored to their particular needs (quiet study and reflection, group work, lively story hours) as well as lighting, signage, decor and creature comforts all can make patrons vote with their feet, in the wrong direction.

Sometimes it IS about the size of the seats.

Jesse McKinley and Joel Topcik, "You Can Buy a Seat, but Can You Fit in It?", The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2004, p. B1.

Does Removing the Middle Link Make the Chain Stronger?

Google has announced its newest endeavor, Google Print, which offers Google users the ability to search the text of books. To date, ten publishers have signed on to the project, which is somewhat similar to Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book" feature. Publishers are looking hopefully at the project as a way to disintermediate the sale of books by possibly including direct links to the publisher of a book next to the search results.

Librarians have long viewed the rise of the Internet and the monster search engines like Google and Yahoo as disintermediators of their services as well. Booksellers' and librarians' responses to the "threat" could be similar: 1) embrace the technology, don't fight it; 2) further differentiate yourselves with personal, top-flight service; 3) market your advantages to the hilt. Google Print or Amazon "Search Inside the Book" are to be understood, but not feared.

Edward Wyatt, "New Google Service May Strain Old Ties in Bookselling," The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2004, p. C3.

Vitruvius Unmasked!

When I first started this blog, I chose "Vitruvius" as my pseudonym, both to maintain my anonymity and to underscore my commitment to good information design. As my experience with the weblog medium grew, I realized that anonymity had its pitfalls as well. Therefore, I am coming out of the literary "closet." My name is Michael Sensiba and I am Vitruvius. Ah. The air seems so much fresher, the sun so much brighter. A burden is lifted. Welcome to my blog.