Technology and Where it is taking us.

MMm well I am in library school and I am just a bit wary about my future. I attended a library forum today and the dean made a statement that stuck in my head: ” physical library collections will never grow like that once did.” That statement made me think about just how electronically oriented the modern day library has become.  He did reinforce the claim that research libraries will still be more than important to academic institutions. I don’t know anymore.  In my opinion jobs will j drastically change. I started out from a paraprofessional perspective as a copy cataloger. I would receive, on average, 500 books a day to verify and augment bibliographic records assigned to each monograph. Now the cataloging is being outsourced to vendors. Items come in with bibliographic records and even barcodes.  I think a lot of the cataloging (staff or professional is done for specific items and gift books).  Now one of my friends who use to be a librarian in main library has been moved to the school of social work.  Granted, I thought it was a natural progression since many colleges are requesting subject specific librarians. However, it makes me think about how technology may enhance the learning and information experience. But at the same time, it might put you literally out of job.  

I promise,  the next post, will be about the White Stripes Under the Northern White Lights

Stream Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider!!! | Nextbop

Stream Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider!!! | Nextbop

The Secret Shh!!!!!!

So, books are a still a large part of the librarian vocation. The question comes, how convincing can a book be? Can it take you down a road of happiness and wonder or torment? These question ran through my mind as I hiked with friends hoping to find an actually baby cemetery in Shelby County. The hike was not related to this story. lol Anyway, as you can imagine, a lot of my friends read books as their main source of entertainment. I guess if you work in a library at least one of your cohorts has to have cracked open a book for fun. Today’s hike reminded me of a story concerning a friend who I last heard was in Hollywood. Anyway, on one particular evening I was at a coffee shop in Tuscaloosa with a group of friends. One of my friends, Jason, is an intriguing character. He is intelligent. But sometimes.......... lets just say he loves to cut off his computer in order to have fun. lol Anyway, he came by the coffee shop one evening and started on a tirade about The Secret.

The Secret is a book written by Rhonda Byne. It is one of those motivational books that I was once  temped to read. Without going into the book's synopsis, Jason went on a verbal rampage about how he knew The Secret. This sounded like the normal Jason. He went on and on about this book and how it taught him to be a millionaire. Can you say infomercial? Is he a millionaire? No. But according to the book, he already was one. This is where it got crazy. He tried to explain The Secret from a religious standpoint. Some of my friends are atheist or they are religious but have issues with organized denominations. So you know how they might have responded. Anyway, Jason started talking about going to Georgia. His intent was to buy a lottery ticket. His words: "I am going to Georgia to buy a lottery ticket. I have already won the big lottery." He then went on to say that he won because of knowing the Secret. At this point, Jason had a glimmer in his eye like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. lol I almost expected him to start saying stuff like. "Yes, the Secret!!!!!! I know it!!! It's my precious." (evil calm voice) Now to jokingly appease him I pulled a quarter out of my pocket. I then said, "I just want 10 million dollars." He said "You already have it."This conversation went on for 5 hours until the coffee shop closed.

The next question is did he win? No.  Did I somehow get my 10 million dollars? Let’s see, I am in library school and I still drive to work instead of scandalously dressed women feeding me strawberries and singing Sexy Thing by Hot chocolate to me. I would say no. So, from this previous passage I have formulated a simple question. Is there a Secret? Maybe....... Can authors still write books that invigorate as much as books such as the Koran, The Christian Bible, The Torah, or The Devil’s Bible? That emphatic yes.

Auto-tune Bibliographic Instruction

Since being enrolled in library school, the subject of maintaining and increasing patronage in libraries has been a big issue. The discussions have been mainly centered around public librarianship, but they certainly are also directed towards academic libraries. So, what do we do?  The conventional antidotes to this situation have been to make the library more like a home and atheistically more pleasing for patrons.  But what about improvements in people skills? I mean librarians need to go far and beyond than the call of duty when it comes to just satisfying a patron. So what is the answer? Or what is an answer?

International known artist Faheem Rasheed Najm aka T-Pain, has made a method of sound mixing called  Auto-Tuning a feature part of music. Hence, he has brought such abridged hits as "I'm Sprung" and that classic dance floor hit "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)" classic millennium hits. So taking a cue from him, I am suggesting that librarians who have developed a lack of people skills compensate for that short coming by auto-tuning themselves.

Here is an example of how world leaders can have used auto tunning to communicate wider audience.

Supernatural

Santana - Supernatural (Legacy Edition)

For nearly 40 years, Santana (the band) has captivated legions of fans. With there Mexican infused rock, Santana lead by guitarist Carlos Santana has taken fans on culutrual and spitiural jounrers since the mid 60's. As with any music group that has last this long, reinvention of the wheel becomes necessary in order to appeal to a new generation.  With Santana, one of those period came in the late nineties. With the support of his Arista Clive Davis, the concept album Supernatural born. A blending of modern pop, rock and R&B mixed with Carlos Santana's fiery Mexican infused guitar rifts made for an album, that reivigorated a band muticulutal awareness and garnered the band 15 x platnum albums and  nine ggammy awards just within the continetal United States. So, how can you make an album that has ganreed such wide spread succeess even better. Technically, you can't. But for an avid or casual listener you can offer a special edition of an album that made 1999 a wondeful year to embrace the such a legendary band.

As with, most Legacy editions of albums, the second disc is the star of the show. Either there is fluff on the second CD. An example of such an album would be the Legacy Edition Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien. If you own some of Satriani's more recent live albums, then you are not missing anything.  However, if you buy the deluxe edition of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? Listeners are treated to a conert on the second disc that is arguable Gaye's banner moment concert wise. But back to the album at hand. Sanatana's legacy edition Supernatural is not on the same level  as Gaye's What's Going On. But, Carlos and his crew aim for that level of spiriality. Gems such as Ya Yo Me Cure focus more on the band itself and not the hybrid collaboration that made the inital release such a success. A shame that these and tracks like the tribute to Bob Marley Exodus/Get Up Stand Up; Exodus\ Get Up Stand Up did not get released earlier. However by itself, the second disc might not have garnered the level of success that the orginral release of supernatural did. In the end, this collection is well worth the buy. The 2nd disc is not a filler CD. It just happens to be further proof that Carlos Santana is Supernatural.

The West Affect

With in this year, I have seen changes in my workplace as well as the rest of the world. I felt my observations of this lecture warranted revisiting. So, it is with that theme I revisit a lecture I attended some two years ago during my first semester in SLIS.

Two years ago, I attended a lecturer series held on campus as a special event. The Speaker, Dr. Cornel West, is the best selling author of Race Matters and the Director of African American Studies at Princeton University. However, Dr. West, is also known for his achievements in the post Civil Rights era and for his intense political round table debate. Dr. West himself brought about a message with the topic of change and how to accomplish it. So it was on October 16, 2009 that I attended this lecture hoping to find some correlation between his social/political views and librarianship as a whole.

Convening at Morgan Auditorium on the campus of The University of Alabama, Dr. West presented a lecture that centralized itself around the theme “ We must learn how to die”. Dr. West also related this to a re-birth, to be reborn into a new human being. He was referring to humanity allowing hatred, racism and bigotry to die with the connotation that a new positive culture would arise. To achieve this, Dr. West often mentioned the word Paideia. Paidea is a Greek word that he explained was a process of “deep education”. A more modern interpretation of the word as Dr. West explained would be a process of critical thinking. We, as human beings, must be critical of ourselves with regards to our thoughts, what we learn, and actions we take based on our acquired knowledge. So how do all these energetic ideas relate to librarianship?

They relate to librarianship because librarians have to take into account all measure of critical thinking in regards to the patrons they serve and the scheme of service in which they provide to patrons. A librarian cannot approach a mentally challenged person with the same frame of mind as a college student or professor. Each client requires different modes of understanding.

Expanding upon the condition of various types of patrons, Dr. West made a statement during his lecture that while extreme in its relation to librarianship, still has connotations for the profession, “The condition of truth is to allow the suffering to speak.” In relation to librarianship, librarians must listen to patrons in order to find out how they can best serve the masses. Now Dr. West was not speaking to those with solely with in the realm of librarianship. However, attendees of this lecture were all there for one purpose: to gain knowledge. This is certainly a hallmark upon which librarians strive to provide.

At the end of the lecture, audience members took the first steps to being reborn. They asked questions. No, they did not ask Dr. West how he felt about being in the Matrix Movies. They asked him critical questions. They practiced Paideia. They asked critical questions in order to gain knowledge. Hence, this is what librarians are challenged to do in defense of the profession. They must disregard old ideas in an ever-changing market in order to serve an ever changing populous.

Books Against The Machine

So, for some of my previous entries, I have been giving odes to how I reached this point in my academic career and the people who influenced that decision. Now it's time to get down to business. Technology!!!!!  I have already briefly commented on the iPad and what are the potential and disadvantages to it's arrival. But, what about the technology that started this whole electronic readers phenomenon? I am, of course, talking about the Kindle.

 

This hardware/software combo was initially viewed by many as another PDA or Apple Newton built specifically to just read books. However, the kindle has turned into a powder cake  that has brought with it fans and critics alike. Taken various polls from my friends on Facebook who are librarians, library school students, or just avid book lovers, here is a list of pros and cons to the kindle.

Pros: The software can be installed on a mobile phone (iPhone), free books (free is 90% of the time good), You can carry thousands of these books with you on the go. The books that you buy for the kindle application tend to be much cheaper than there paper counterparts. Next, books are more durable than electronic readers. God forbid, you become irate because your dog at an entire bottle of petroleum jelly and starts sliding across the kitchen floor. That did happen to a friend of mine. Anyway, I doubt a kindle would survive a total smack down to the floor. A regular book would take a licking and keep on ticking.

Con: Unlike comics books and graphic novels, kindle books are files that can't be passed down from generation to generation. The cost. Even though you only pay a one time fee for the device, $200 for a device that does not even have a book on it yet is pretty steep. Electricity. a Kindle is a electronic device. Therefore, it requires charging at some point. A real monograph does not. Lastly, technology wears out. Things break. So will a kindle. With proper care a book can last next to a life time.

 

So what is my view on the Kindle? I think it is a nifty device. but a waste. Just as the PDA gave away to the Smartphone, the Kindle will give away to net books and devices such as the Apple iPad. Most individuals want more bang for their buck. I want to read my books, surf the internet and listen/ watch the multiple gigs of music/movies I own.  Will the traditional book go away? No!!!!!!! In my view, the aforementioned cons are enough to make that statement clear. However, that does not mean I am a furiously against this technology.

I think there is room for both this marvelous device and regular books. However, the romantic in me will not be buying a Kindle anytime soon. I love the smell of good old fashion paper (new or recycled).