Speaking of Google infringing on copyrights

I found an interesting article in light of the readings for class today. Google was just successfully sued in Belgium for violating copyright privileges, and this article mentions that robot.txt option for having search engines pass over your material. Some interesting food for thought...
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/about-google-news-case-in-belgium.html

Lisa

Relevant Material

John Updike, at the 2006 Book Expo, took offense to Kevin Kelly's article Scan this Book and the new process of digitizing books. He asks what happened to "accountability and intimacy." I'll include links to an edited transcript as well as the Book Expo podcast in case anyone wanted to check it out.

http://bookexpocast.com/2006/05/26/bea-2-john-updike-speech/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/18/svupdike18.xml

"Information Ecologies" reading

The authors of this book stressed the approach of using technology with heart. I felt that this viewpoint was a bit naive. Where do we set our limits and how do we determine them? The authors often contradict this viewpoint, especially when they write that we can change technology but only when we participate and engage ourselves with it. This is a valid argument, until they add: "Resistance is sometimes a part of the strategy, but we believe it is a flawed approach if used by itself, because it disempowers" (215). I feel that using technology with heart also disempowers and that it is a form of resistance. I believe that the best part of the Internet is that it has the potential to overcome the influence of the mass media and government. As the authors write, technology does not often inhibit expression. It certainly is up to the user as to how to take advantage of this as he or she chooses. Many people do use the Internet irresponsibly, but as the authors write: "technology regulates us...is always a step ahead of us...and has the potential to completely overwhelm us" (210). But it is only with the constant use and updating of technology that we can regulate it and begin to engage with it.
In other words, I completely agree with the authors that users and uses must continue to coevolve.

Class discussion ideas: Information Ecologies

(Since I'm leading class discussion this week, it's my job to post some reactions to the reading here on the class weblog at least 24 hours before our class meeting. The rest of you should be posting your own brief reactions, questions, critiques, and/or comments on the reading to your own critical response weblogs. If you like, you may also post a reaction to what I lay out here by clicking on the "comments" link below.)

Although Nardi and O'Day's book _Information Ecologies_ only had one chapter specfically about "librarians" (and a very particular subset of librarianship at that, corporate reference librarians) it seems to me that many of the social processes at work in the other chapters -- effectively using information systems in the workplace, training children on information tools and literacy, and representing identities and places online -- are wrapped up in librarianship as well. Are there lessons we might learn from the other "information ecologies" presented in the book?

Nardi and O'Day spend a good amount of time explaining why metaphors are useful tools for thought, and why they constructed their "information ecology" metaphor. But metaphors are both useful and deceptive. They call to mind certain factors, associations, and "affordances" (to use a Nardi and O'Day term) but they mask and minimize others. What other metaphors besides an "information ecology" might we use for a library (or for various types of libraries, such as public, academic/research, school, and archive)? In what ways are libraries themselves used as metaphors for wider social phenomena (like the idea that the World Wide Web is a "global library")?

Nardi and O'Day talk about the "heart" by making explicit reference to the need for shared "values" in a healthy information ecology. But they only show one case of a "dysfunctional" information ecology where those values are disputed and contested. In fact, in general, notions of power and conflict seem to be absent from their analysis. Are values so easily discovered and agreed upon? Are information ecologies only "healthy" if they exhibit single-minded agreement on mission, purpose, and ideals of what is good? What "core values" do (or should) libraries and librarians share, and what values may be argued about or fought over without tearing apart the information ecology of the library?

Comments on any of these ideas are welcome (just click on the link below). Otherwise, hope we can talk about them tomorrow in class.

Information seeking doesn't sleep...

Just a note that you can check out my response to this week's book at my blog : http://write-the-clock-around.blogspot.com/ The text editing software leaves something to be desired - so bare with me about the choppy indentation and paragraphing. Just consider it free-verse poetry.

RE: Christine Pawley, "Libraries" article
Overall, I thought this article was a comprehensive and quick history with a minimum of comment on the facts to avoid clouding the information with too much opinion.
I don't think that the way libraries are changing to incorporate digital and electronic material threatens the traditional library as much as Dr. Pawley suggests. Certainly, the library has had to adapt to the expansion of digital and electronic media, and there is still an ongoing process as these new techologies play out for us. But, for many library patrons, (and this is based on my almost daily trip to the local library down the street to read the paper) the public library is the physical place of choice for gaining access to most of these materials.
I agree with the growing concern of preservation and conservation via the digital and/or microform world. Paper is relatively cheap and durable, although there are storage concerns, and you don't have to plug it in. But digital and microform storages can provide the average library user with so many more materials with the downside that they are problematic in their vulnerability to obscelence and are far more vulnerable, at this point, to the ravages of time.
It's also interesting to explore how the concept of collection management has evolved histrorically based on competing political and philosophical perspectives.

RE: D.D. Rusch-Feja's "Libraries: Digital, electronic, and hybrid"
I liked this article because it discusses the digital and electronic library and its expansion into the tradititonal model and the attempts to standardize and quantify how to organize this vast technology. The conept of the hybrid library is what we seem to be heading for as we try to synthesize this melange of print, electronic, media, photographic, musical, etc.
It's interesting to note just how much we currently take interoperability for granted in a typical search.
I agree with the concern that there is a need for quality control and validity checking, and I share the concern that the information we all value as a freely available resource to anyone who needs it will be increasingly restricted to those who can pay for it.

RE: Wayne E Wiegand, "Tunnel vision and blind spots: ..."
A very interesting presentation of a more philosophical perspective of the history of librarianship, asking of librarians the need for further research into the actual role of libraries instead of the perceived one.
Dr. Wiegand points out some grave inconsistencies in our assumptions about libraries as neutral, altuistic instutions for the benefit of everyone, and the lack of empirical information to better address these inconsistencies.
Leads in nicely with it's call for more in depth bridging between user study and library science to what Information Ecologies addresses next week.

RE: Tefko Saracevic "Information Science"
This article is a discussion of the basic schism between the scientific part of the field and, sort of, all the rest.
As Saracevic points out, there is little travel between the systems- based and human- based approaches to information science and, though there are some attempts, there is little being done to bring these two approaches together.
I agree with Julia, it's a collosal mistake to build a system for human users that doesn't take into account the humans using it.

News article: "Unable to Repeat the Past" (Los Angeles Times)

From time to time I'll post interesting news articles that relate to "information agencies and their environment" to our course weblog. (You should feel free to do the same, as all students are authorized to post on our weblog's "front page".) This morning someone pointed me to a Los Angeles Times article entitled Unable to Repeat the Past which talks about the risks we information professionals take when we trust long-term data storage to digital methods:

Digital storage methods, although vastly more capacious than the paper they are rapidly replacing, have proved the softest wax. Heat and humidity can destroy computer disks and tapes in as little as a year. Computers can break down and software often becomes unusable in a few years. A storage format can quickly become obsolete, making the information it holds effectively inaccessible.

No one has compiled an inventory of lost records, but archivists regularly stumble upon worrisome examples. Reports detailing the military's spraying of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam, needed for research and medical care, were obliterated. Census data from the 1960s through 1980s disappeared. A multitude of electronic voting records vanished without a trace.

Records considered at risk by the National Archives include diagrams and maps needed to secure the nuclear stockpile and policy documents used to inform partners in the war on terror. Much like global warming, the archive problem emerged suddenly, its effects remain murky and the brunt of its effect will be felt by future generations. The era we are living in could become a gap in history.

'If we don't solve the problem, our time will not become part of the past,' said Kenneth Thibodaux, who directs electronic records preservation for the National Archives. 'It will largely vanish.'

Anyone care to comment? (The full article continues at the link above.)

9/11 Readings

Libraries by C. Pawley

It is interesting to see how libraries have changed from simply large collections of materials, mainly for the rich and learned to places where people from all walks of life can come for their individual interests and inquiries. Librarianship has shifted from simply keeping materials to an environment of service where it is the job of librarians to make it easy to find information, as well as helping and teaching users ways of finding information. With the “explosion in publishing” and the “explosion in digital information” (she likes talking about explosions) librarians have had to shift to become organizers, as well as innovators in new ways to keep track of this information and make it easily accessible.

Libraries: Digital, Electronic, and Hybrid by D.D. Rusch-Feja

Clearly libraries are trying to find new means of storing this wealth of information that bombards us from academe, the scientific community, the private sector and many others. This is where digital libraries come in. NASA and the NSF sponsored digitization projects, and universities were awarded grants to start their own digital library functions. One question I have is the one that Chris Rusbridge addresses. He argues that “a pure digital library could not exist because of legacy collections and services…” I am not sure though. With Google scanning thousands of books and people’s love of the convenience of the internet (you can go shopping in your underwear), how much longer until the idea of an entirely digital library becomes a reality?

Tunnel Vision and Blind Spots by Wayne A. Wiegand

The figures he gave were rather amazing and showed the true scope of how far-reaching the library as an institution is. He then outlines the history of modern librarianship, and for the most part it is a proud history. One such example is librarians being champions in the fight against censorship, even though there are challenges to this like McCarthy and now illicit websites. But the main point he is trying to make in giving us all this background is that library science as a field is not introspective enough. It does not conduct enough in depth research. It does not critically analyze technology enough. It also does not pay enough attention to the user of information. The unexamined library is not worth checking books out of.

Information Science by Tefko Saracevic

This was probably my favorite article out of the four. He gives a great quote right at the start from Sir Karl Popper that says, “We are not students of some subject matter, but students of problems.” Problems are the large key in this article. When we as students or professionals in a field look at things in terms of problems to be solved it makes things much more personal and much more manageable. We study these problems and try to find solutions for real life issues not simply highfalutin theories. He breaks down different areas of information science and these areas of studies are simply problems spots, things that we need to work on. He also shows the split between library science and information science. He tells us that there are different problems that each field deal with as well as different ways of dealing with them. Each specific academic realm has their own problems and it is these problems that define them.

Readings for September 11th

Libraries by Pawley
It was very interesting to see how someone in the profession chose to explain things to "others". For some of us this is our first taste of librarianship and from whence it came. I found it incredibly interesting and helpful in thinking of my future plans since I have no idea what way I want to go.
libraries: Digital, Electronic and Hybrid
Like Julia said in her posting, I like the idea of digital libraries. Being able to access information types from one location instead of going to many locations is very convenient. Seeing movie clips, hearing music clips, photographs, reading, will make information gathering for whatever purpose seem much more possible even for those who aren't technologically up to date!
Tunnel vision and Blind Spots
I thought the article by Wiegand felt very thorough. One of the first things that caught me off guard was the statistics he stated: "...More public libraries than McDonald's...More children participate in summer reading programs at libraries than play Little League baseball..." etc. I guess I had thought that libraries, in the brick-and-mortar style, had fallen out of use (or at least were beginning to). I'm glad that libraries don't try to dictate what is in a collection for patrons to utilize. I think it's more important to have materials available from which the patron is able to choose. What a librarian thinks is inappropriate or "best book"-worthy may not be something the patron agrees with. There are too many factors involved to say what is good and bad for all people. It was nice to see how people in the profession have realized what censorship can mean and have been taking a stand against it. I also found it interesting how he used major national events to show differentiation in time periods. I liked that as the framing of how and why things occurred the way they did.
Information Science by Saracevic
Many of the points brought up in this selection made me think of librarianship in a new way. "Information science, as a science and as a profession, is defined by the problems it has addressed and the methods it has used for their solutions over time." Instead of keeping up or rolling with the changes, Saracevic claims that information technologists have been using the newest technology to solve problems. As much as it pains me to realize it, computers and technology are NOT made to make life more difficult, they are designed to make life easier.

Notes on the first set of readings

We didn't have any class time to discuss today's readings, but I would still like to see you post reactions to your reader-response journal. Julia set a good example of tone and length in her blog LIS 450 Reading Reactions. (I'll try to pick on -- ah, I mean, highlight -- a different student response each week.) On the Wiegand piece, for example, she observed, "I was very surprised that there is a lack of library history, especially considering that so much of the work done in libraries is to maintain items from the past. I guess we don't like to look at ourselves! " As one of the SLIS professors who teaches LIS 569, History of American Librarianship, I've been surprised by this as well. (But don't fret too much; computer scientists are awful at writing their own histories as well.)

You probably got the gimmick of this week's readings: setting the "library" and "information studies" sides of our field in a bit of an opposition to illustrate how broad the world of LIS really can be -- and how one of the main difficulties in this field is bridging that gap. Here at UW-Madison, SLIS is known for having a center of gravity more toward the "library" side, but really this means that in our "information studies" work (of which there is much in our department), we never forget to consider the user of information, the uses of that information, and the context in which both come together. As Julia points out about the Saracevic article, "I found it interesting that there are information scientists who ignore the user. This just baffles me; what use is the information if it's not being used by someone?"

The September Project

Our first class is on a day filled with emotion and politics, and although we won't have time to discuss it in lecture, I wanted to make sure students knew about The September Project which was started by LIS professional David Silver:

The September Project is a grassroots effort to get people together on September 11th to talk about issues that matter. September Project events take place in libraries, where all people are welcomed, and where the exchange of information and ideas flourish. The September Project encourages individual communities — neighbors — to make sense of the world together.

David Silver is the co-director of The September Project and leads the project's outreach efforts. As a citizen, David believes libraries represent the heart, soul, and collective memory of our communities. As a reader, David looks to libraries, and librarians, for new ideas, new perspectives, and new solutions. His local library is the Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library. His work library is the University of Washington's Suzzallo Library.

If any of you participate in any September Project activities -- or would like to organize such an activity (there's still time) -- please leave a comment about it here.

Reader is in at last

Just got this from ASM Student Print: "Your LIS 450 course reader is complete. The price for your students is $20.50 with tax. We are open M-F 9:30AM-6:30PM" Find them in the basement of the Memorial Union.