Following the money in libraries
flickr - kiki99
About a year ago, I heard a startling piece of information at the annual meeting of the Saxon Library Assocation (a state-level organization) in Leipzig. Public libraries in Saxony (Sachsen) spend around 10% of their budget on materials, and what I thought was an outrageous 67% on staffing. Saxony’s percentage is low for Germany, but most states hit around 12-13%. Equally bad, I thought. At the time, I made a mental (and thankfully, digital) note to look up numbers for the U.S. and write something about what felt like a revelation. Read more…
Wikileaks and mass hysteria
There is nothing so effective as a common enemy to bring even the most bitter opponents together. In that light, Wikileaks is something of a godsend for U.S. politicians. Nevermind the fact that most of the information released by Wikileaks will not even cause so much as a ruffle in our relations with most nations, and where it does harm, it is likely in areas where harm is already being done. Despite the rather unspectacular nature of the information released thus far, it hasn’t stopped any number of politicians from grandstanding. A small sample from hundreds of statements:
- U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York “has said Assange should be prosecuted for espionage. He also said that the United States should classify WikiLeaks as a terrorist group so that ‘we can freeze their assets.’ And he called Assange an enemy combatant.” (from CNN)
- U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky “I think the man is a high-tech terrorist … He has done enormous damage to our country. And I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” (also from CNN)
Google ebookstore – an early review
The other shoe has dropped. As we all knew would happen, Google has now entered the ebook market, and with their usual “we do it bigger and better” approach. They already offer 3 million titles that work on a variety of platforms, including Android, iPods/Phones, Web browsers, and Nook/Sony hardware. If the iPad wasn’t already a Kindle killer, this will likely be the blow that brings down Amazon’s ebook palace, as if predicting the demise of a hermetically sealed and proprietary technology in 2010 required much sagacity. Read more…
Even if you’re a good press, it’s still spam
flickr - hegarty_david
In the last couple of years, I have noticed a disturbing trend in my email inbox: the rise of publisher spam. Less reputable publishers have long spammed librarians to hawk their wares, even though I would posit that so doing actually pushes their reputation further down the scale.
Lately, however, I seem to receive more and more unsolicited email from reputable presses, for example the University of North Carolina Press [update: they got the message, see the comments below!]. While these publishers do offer the option to unsubscribe from the list, that they put me on the list in the first place without my consent is a bit irritating.
Sure, in the old analog days–which unfortunately persist for some publishers who didn’t get the memo about the 21st century–publishers mailed out catalogs by the ton, even though few librarians I know use them as a selection tool. In my hands, they have always had a half life of about six seconds. Junk mail is annoying, but spam is moreso and has the added dimension of feeling like an invasion of one’s personal space. Given that we have tools to deal with spam, it’s not a good idea for publishers to utilize it. Read more…
Digital scholarship and libraries
One of the more rewarding things I have done as a librarian was having the opportunity to found the open access journal imprint New Prairie Press here at Kansas State. Part of this work has been honing the message of open access and digital scholarship that we present to potential scholarly journal editors. Many are initially skeptical, but without fail I can report that all of the editors who have come on board are now enthusiastic supporters of this new publishing paradigm.
One of the advantages I often mention is that with digital scholarship, many of the limitations of print publication cease to exist, first and foremost page counts and limitations. Read more…
Wikileaks, Germany, and Herr Westerwelle
Having written here before about Wikileaks when they released the video of US gunships killing Reuters journalists, I cannot resist commenting on the issue on everyone’s minds today. As with many with whom I have spoken, I am of two minds about the wisdom of revealing 250,000+ diplomatic cables, but in the end, I think the balance comes out positive. Really, anyone engaged in diplomacy should not have their feelings hurt by being called names in diplomatic cables, and the U.S. does enough nasty stuff out in the open that anything we learn of from these cables likely will not set the world on fire.
For my part, I headed straight for the cables issued by the embassy in Berlin. German politics and politicians are well known to me, so I can read these cables without a lot of head scratching and googling and still get the gist. For the most part, they are banal. The writing is generally remarkably good, and the analysis is pretty spot on, too, even if I disagree politically with the American view at times.
The most shocking revelation so far for me, however, is contained in this pithy sentence from a February 2010 cable:
Westerwelle (who spoke with ease in English) was in a buoyant mood and more confident on his issues than we have seen him so far.
What what what ?!?! Guido can speak English with ease? And I thought he was Mr. Anti-English. And he was in a good mood and making sense? Hold the presses!
Thank you, Wikileaks!
Pandering to the base
While grading a paper from one of my classes at the HTWK Leipzig recently, I was checking a source and ran across this year’s winners of the Panter Preis sponsored by the taz, a newspaper solidly planted on the far left side of the German political spectrum. One of this year’s winners–of the reader prize–was André Shepherd, a deserter from the U.S. Army.
Before I continue, let me establish several things: Read more…
Books with passports
As our move to Canada approaches, I find myself yet again getting rid of a bunch of pointless possessions. Among the piles are some books.
Rather than just sell these or give them away and be done with it, I’m going to try a little experiment using a tool I recently discovered: bookcrossing.com. The idea is simple: you print out a label from their Website with a unique code on it, slap it in a book, and set the book loose upon the world. Anyone who picks up the book can go to the site, enter the code, and share where and when they picked up the book.
Simple, fun, and just right for a bibliophile, well, at least for the kind that can occasionally give up a book.
Letterhead ethics
Here’s a question for anyone reading my blog, and in this case I would especially appreciate hearing your comments:
Assuming that one is gainfully employed in academia, either as a librarian or as faculty, and applying for similar work at another institution, should one use their current institution’s letterhead for the cover letters?
I say no. Your current employer (assuming you are not being downsized or laid off) should not be asked to support your job search. Letterhead is for official business related to the university, not for one’s personal choices. For me, it is the same as if one were to take home a bunch of office supplies for their kids’ school or club projects. Many people do it, but that does not make it right.
My wife says bosh to all that. She says that as an academic one is entitled to the letterhead, and should use it for job applications to assert one’s footing in the profession. I get her point, but if your CV says you are an assistant professor at University X, do reviewers of applications really need the visual reminder? As evidence, she showed me a stack of applications where people with jobs used letterhead to apply for a Kansas State job.
I have reviewed countless applications for library jobs, and have only rarely seen an applicant use the letterhead of their current library. My wife says we are just different professions. I say that her peers have loose ethical definitions.
What’s your take?
Moving on
Apparently my love for the word peripatetic knows no bounds. After five years at Kansas State University–more like 3.5, since I spent 1.5 of them in Germany–I am moving on to be the Associate University Librarian for Library and Learning Technology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. To say that this is exciting yields yet another example of understatement.
I look forward to working with new colleagues there, while keeping ties to some of the people at Kansas State. There are both drawbacks and benefits to building one’s career by moving on, and while for my part I tend to see the benefits as dominant, one of the things I value as a librarian is that I still have close professional ties to all of the libraries where I have worked. That says something about the profession, I think, and about a collaborative and open environment. Somehow I doubt it would be so easy to maintain these personal/professional relationships were I moving from consulting firm to consulting firm. Too many NDAs get in the way.
Many thanks to everyone who has passed on good wishes since this news became public. This is a great profession, and it is a true privilege to know and learn from so many good librarians globally. I look forward to building more bridges and contacts down the road.
The Bibliobrary 