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Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet | LISNews

Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet | LISNews.

Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet
Fri, 08/29/2008 - 11:48 — Bibliofuture
Book review at Salon.com of the book "Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet"

How do we know what we know? A new book takes a long view of knowledge, from ancient oral traditions to the rise of universities and the Internet.

We live in the information age, when networked computers give millions of users unprecedented access to communications and data. But so what? That is, in effect, what Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton have to say at the conclusion of "Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet." The authors are indeed hard to impress. Their small book takes a long view -- an exceedingly long view, beginning with the birth of Western civilization in the philosophical academies of ancient Greece and wending its way, century by century, to the present. McNeely and Wolverton remain unpersuaded that the Internet is as revolutionary as it's cracked up to be. Full review here.

Book Review - 'The Way We’ll Be,' by John Zogby - Review - NYTimes.com

Book Review - 'The Way We’ll Be,' by John Zogby - Review - NYTimes.com.

Zogby’s Crystal Ball
By JOE QUEENAN, Published: August 29, 2008

In the opening pages of “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream,” the pollster John Zogby describes people between ages 18 and 29 as “the first colorblind Americans.” Presumably this means that young African-Americans attending Nas­car rallies won’t notice all those Confederate flag headbands the colorblind good old boys are sporting and that Yalies whose BMWs break down at 3 a.m. outside a hip-hop club in East New York won’t notice that there don’t seem to be a lot of Whiffenpoof aficionados in the immediate vicinity. What Zogby probably means to say is that the demographic group he refers to as “the First Globals” is the first generation of Americans who would have the nerve to describe themselves as being colorblind and not expect to be laughed at. Whenever I see glowing reports about color­blind white people, I wonder how many black people were included in the polling sample.

THE WAY WE’LL BE
The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream
By John Zogby
235 pp. Random House. $26

Could you pass the test? « Library Notes

Could you pass the test? « Library Notes.

Could you pass the test? [ Public Library test, 1925 ]
Posted by madler under library education, public libraries | Tags: chicago public library, exam, librarians, training

From The Chicago Public Library Staff News, v.3:no.3, Nov. 1924

This is addressed to the Juniors–you who come to us in such numbers, usually on temporary appointment until the next Civil Service examination, which you must take and pass before you can begin to be promoted. You come into our staff, mostly, straight from school or college and have never been regularly employed before. Usually you were led to seek employment with us because you thought you would like our kind of work, or because someone else who directed you thought you would like it, and that your tastes and capacities fitted you for it.

The library test from 1925 is online in PDF, see the article link to grab it or direct here...

Panorama: I Am - The Library

Panorama: I Am - The Library.

I Am - The Library
posted Monday, August 11, 2008 3:25 p.m.

See more on: Democratic National Convention, Denver

I Am – The Library I Am – The Library is an ethnographic video project, which documents the everyday ways a public library is used. Set in and around the Denver Central Library a few weeks before the 2008 Democratic National Convention, it is inspired by the social and oratorical work of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a former presidential candidate who's life's work as a civil rights activist was triggered when, as a twenty-year old college student, he fought to desegregate his hometown public library.

Urban Library Journal: Special Issue: The Creative Library

Urban Library Journal: Special Issue: The Creative Library.

Urban Library Journal 15.1 Spring 2008
Special Issue: The Creative Library

Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University, is the guest editor of this special issue of Urban Library Journal. The issue will showcase how librarians are tapping their creativity to develop innovations that allow urban libraries to meet the challenge of organizational change, diverse user populations, emerging technologies, and other issues facing twenty-first century libraries.
table of contents :: PDF

Is Long Beach at war with books? - Press-Telegram

Is Long Beach at war with books? - Press-Telegram.

Is Long Beach at war with books?
by Ray Bradbury
Article Launched: 08/05/2008 08:55:48 PM PDT

Over the years I have had a love affair with Long Beach and frequently visit.

A few weeks ago I was in your city to mourn the pending forced closure of Acres of Books. Since 1934 this unique cultural heritage landmark bookstore has been a destination for book lovers from around the world with its inventory of over 1 million books. The current city leadership has forced its closure and will bulldoze the site to develop a strip mall and parking lot, an action they call progress.

I recently learned of the pending forced closure of the Long Beach Main Library from public access to balance the city budget. This is heartbreak and an outrage. Libraries are also an essential core public service. How can a major city not provide public access to a civic center library?

City Hall decisions will remove access to over 1.5 million books from one square mile of the city! Is Long Beach at war with the printed word and books?

A wise man, Ray Bradbury, writer, and fan of libraries.. I wish someone in Long Beach, CA government would listen to his thoughtful plea to save books and libraries in their community...

Library pioneers strove for a place in history- MassLive.com

Library pioneers strove for a place in history- MassLive.com.

Library pioneers strove for a place in history
Monday, July 28, 2008
By STAN FREEMAN sfreeman@repub.com

One's name is imprinted on history. The other's is not.

After all, almost everyone has heard of the Dewey Decimal System. But who can say that he or she has ever heard of the Cutter Expansive Classification System?

Melvil Dewey, director of the Amherst College library in the 1870s, and Charles Ammi Cutter, director of the Forbes Library in Northampton in the 1890s, were friends, co-founders of the American Library Association, and recognized visionaries in the library sciences. But they were also rivals for the same narrowly defined place in history.

They both sought to make their names as the inventor of the system that would standardize the classification of books in libraries around the world.

But, in the end, character may have been destiny.

"You would have liked Cutter if you met him; you wouldn't have liked Dewey," says Wayne A. Wiegand, a professor of library and information sciences at Florida State University and the author of "Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey."

Note to self: The therapeutic effects of reading other people's to-do lists - Healthy Living, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent

Note to self: The therapeutic effects of reading other people's to-do lists - Healthy Living, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent.

Note to self: The therapeutic effects of reading other people's to-do lists
Sasha Cagen has spent the past decade collecting other people's to-do lists – she reveals why the simplest form of therapy may be index-linked
By Kate Burt, Sunday, 3 August 2008

Other people's to-do lists can be endlessly fascinating – but pinpointing exactly why isn't always easy, admits Sasha Cagen, an American writer who has spent the past nine years collecting hand-written "notes to self" from hundreds of strangers.

Yet, just a few minutes browsing through those lists on the blog Cagen has dedicated to her pursuit goes some way to providing the answer. "Get car headlamp fixed, mop hall, call cat psychic," reads one. In another, a trainee psychotherapist bullet-points some fears about her impending career that, intriguingly, include "I hate having to think about my clients in relation to my clothes and hair," while the classic "Girls I've kissed" list (complete with names, descriptions, nationalities and the year the kissing took place) is reassuring in its familiarity – who hasn't done the same?

The fascinating blog from this article is at http://todolistblog.blogspot.com

Administration Contacts | San Diego Public Library

Administration Contacts | San Diego Public Library.

Administration | San Diego Public Library
Library Director Deborah Barrow

[Left, screenshot, Library Director page, SDPL]

Deborah Barrow is the Library Director for the City of San Diego's public library system, which is composed of the Central Library, 35 community libraries, and the literacy program - Project Read. With over 20 years experience in public library service, Barrow has served 13 years as the director of library systems in Northern California. She served at the City of Watsonville from December 1995 to February 2005, and the City of Sunnyvale from February 2005 to July of 2008. Barrow joined the San Diego Public Library system on July 21, 2008.