Question:
You're a library. You do things the way everyone else does them? What happens? Can you beat the averages?
Anwswer:
This happnes, and I quote Paul Graham again,
Beating the Averages: "The average big company grows at about ten percent a year. So if you're running a big company and you do everything the way the average big company does it, you can expect to do as well as the average big company-- that is, to grow about ten percent a year."
Question:
What is a good way to understand things?
Answer:
Question, write, question write, talk, question write and talk.
Quote:
The Roots of Lisp: "In 1960, John McCarthy published a remarkable paper in which he did for programming something like what Euclid did for geometry. He showed how, given a handful of simple operators and a notation for functions, you can build a whole programming language. He called this language Lisp, for 'List Processing,' because one of his key ideas was to use a simple data structure called a list for both code and data."
ACM Crossroads: "ACM Crossroads
The Student Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery"
Question:
What's a great interview meaning what are great questions to ask and great responses to get?
Answer:
Read the ACM Crossroads: Issue 12.3/ 2006. "The future of programming: An interview with Paul Graham."
Question:
How do you monitor/ track the pulse of change?
Answer:
I would bet everyone has their own system of information-amalgamation and processing. But, could the best way be to center it around a set of guidelines that you match to your needs, desires, interests, and relevancy to what you want out of life?
O'Reilly sources/ writer/ people who link to them
O'Reilly Radar: "CampfirePermalink
By marc on February 15, 2006
"Our friends at 37signals just launched Campfire, their latest product (following on Basecamp and Backpack). I've been testing this product"
Question:
How do you know when something is true?
Answer:
Sometimes, someone, somewhere in some way says what you're thinking -it is possible to know things in another person's mind. Other we would never really be able to communicate and we can.
Information Takes Over » Blog Archive » Library 2.0 bubbling away: "Perhaps there really is more to do in our libraries than we had thought, and the fear of being left behind has kick started our desire to make everything better. Reading through Walt Crawford’s cites and insights shows a myriad of good ideas spread all over the library, but tagged with the same Library 2.0 ticket.
And now, having just read David King discussing the confrontational aspects of Library 2.0 we begin to see why this reaction might be. That same fear that galvanises some of us, is battening down the hatches in others."
1. Point & Click Openoffice.Org
ISBN:
0131879928
2. Openoffice.Org 2, Firefox and Thunderbird with CDROM
ISBN:
0672328089
3. Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs
ISBN:
0072227125
4. 501+ Great Interview Questions for Employers and the Best Answers for Prospective Employees
ISBN:
0910627509
5. Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software
ISBN:
0262062461
6. Lincoln on Leadership
ISBN:
0446394599
7. The Threefold Lotus Sutra
ISBN:
4333002087
8. Leadership can be taught
ISBN:
1591393094
9. The Inner Art of Vegetarianism
ISBN:
1930051255
10. Web Design in a Nutshell
ISBN:
0596001967
11. Buddhism without beliefs
ISBN:
1573226564
Question:
Is "The Myth of the Paperless Office" true? This was wrote four years ago, is it still applicable?
Book:
"The Myth of the Paperless Office"
Question:
How do you do "it"?
Quote:
"5 Suggestions for Upgrading to Library 2.0
(or Some Easy Steps to Get Started...Really)"
Question:
Are people still thinking about the paperless office? What is the way we work?
Answer:
Yes, yes they are.
Question:
What's tame these days? Who should I read if I think about information, access to information and like thinking about information & libraries?
Summary:
You should read people like this; I hope to discover more of them.
Quote:
Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: "Not Library 2.0 Part III
Via Michael Sauers:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/99868083/
"With this and these two examples so far (and I'm sure there are many more) that point to barriers created by librarians when, for example, across the pond, the word is CONVERGENCE.
Let me know if more pics like this go up on flickr. Can we use a tag? 'NotLibrary2.0'?"
Question:
What's a good database but not a great interface?
Summary:
While Naxos seems to be interesting, the web interface needs work. Proquest is hard to beat in terms of their interface and functionality -nearly every time I use Proquest I get what I expect; that's saying a lot about databases.
Quote:
FGCU Library Services:
"Naxos Music Library: good comprehensive collection of classical music available online. Select works by composer, artist, period, year of composition, genre or instrument."
Question:
Who isn't blogging about the state of blogging?
Quote:
Sifry's Alerts: State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth: "In addition to that, about 2.7 million bloggers update their blogs at least weekly."
Thoughts:
What would be interesting to see is how many bloggers blog this and more importantly, how fast.
Question:
What do you think about?
Answer:
I think about things like this. In fact, an editorial I'm writing now ends with "...Information is big business. Look at Wal-Mart ..."
Summary:
Libraries are and have always been in the information business. Now, we need to wake-up and realize this time is the experience economy -that means service plus information.
The Journal of Electronic Publishing:
"Meanwhile, outside the world of research publishing and librarianship, life is good and getting better, at least in that small corner of the world where I conduct my everyday activities. I buy a book from Amazon in two or three mouse clicks, and the book appears at my doorstep three days later, with no charge for shipping. I transfer money online into my checking account without a hitch (if only I could remember my password!). Managing a Netflix subscription is a real joy: fast, reliable, with a pot of gold arriving regularly in my mailbox. Or I step into a Kinko's copy shop to make some file copies of IRS forms: insert a credit card, press for copies, and get a receipt printed out at the end, all without having a single exchange with a Kinko's staff member. Publishers are toiling in purgatory, librarians in hell, but there is a paradise somewhere, a world of carefully analyzed and optimized workflow, where, mirabile dictu, a person's time is so highly regarded that it is never, ever squandered."
Question:
How do you design for public space? How do you make life more integrated? How do you help people realize all of their life is connected, that all decisions matter, that everything from seemingly mundane public transportation to an environmentally sustainable street to why they should buy organic -that it all matters? Through great --thoughtful-- design. Great design considers humanity's interaction with the elements, tasks, places, jobs, buildings etc., that we face everyday.
Source:
Design Trust for Public Space
Question:
How do you know what information sources you need? This series of articles on tastemakers list the different sources the writers trolled through for their research. Among those listed are compiled statistics, industry reports, interviews, newspapers, and electronic databases.
Quotes/Examples:
1. "...as recorded by Factiva..."
2. "The more companies invest in design, the more likely they are to see success, according to the Design Council."
Question:
How do you teach research to students? Do you make things hard to find in the library? Do you use academese or librarian-speak? How do you develop information fluency? Show the students that research is what makes you a professional and that developing a methodology for your research is as important as any other thing they will do in their chosen field. But, the most important part of research: the synthesis. Any information literacy program that focuses on finding information as opposed to synthesizing that information is missing the freakin' boat.
Example:
Tastemakers: Chefs Methodology - Forbes.com: "Tastemakers: Chefs Methodology "
Question:
How hard are you willing to work? I like hard work. I like hard working people. There is something to be respected about anyone, whether it's someone in a third world country or an executive chef, working to make a living.
Quote:
Tastemakers: Chefs - Forbes.com: "Many chef-owners don't take a salary until their eateries are successful and are forced to live very frugally--even if they are celebrated for their cuisine."
Question:
Isn't this a newly recognized form of power? What's interesting is how you think about these tastemakers. Mark Twain says whenever you find yourself on the majority you need to stop and think. What if you don't know your on the majority? How do you know what you don't know? You start by questioning why you think you like certain things. You start by breaking down your mental models of beliefs, values, ethics, or ideas. If you're only building up the walls of Jericho to defend what you believe how long is it before those beliefs crush anyone in your way or crush you? All types of architects from information_architects to civil architects need to consider their "tastes."
SUMMARY:
The Tastemakers - Forbes.com: "Forbes.com selected ten individuals who have made the greatest creative contributions (or continued to make great contributions) to their respective fields over the past year."