Daily Thoughts 11/1/2011

The Pen ts'ao, 1249 C.E. Printed with woodblock, this illustrated book discusses Chinese herbal medicine.

Daily Thoughts 11/1/2011

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also spent a little bit of time on the website.  I have been learning to make minor adjustments.  I put up a brief description for a new display of hooked rugs in the Rotunda Gallery by the Hudson Valley Rug Hookers. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/Gallery

There is a free Library 2.0 Virtual Conference between November 2-4.  I just signed up.  http://www.library20.com

I spent some more time this afternoon practicing on Lynda.com.  I also spent some time talking to people about our computer lab.  We are getting steadily increasing usage.

I also spent a small amount of time weeding in the mezzanine.

On the way home, I read some more of Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength Willpower by Johan F. Baumeister and John Tierney.  I liked the descriptions of how changing simple habits like posture can increase ones willpower.  I also liked the description of how can increasing discipline in one area like diet or studying can increase discipline in other areas.  One piece of the writing bothered me.  The authors claim that self discipline is more important self esteem.  I disagree with this.  I think both are equally important.

Web Bits

Library With Free Online College Textbooks Makes Debut
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/11/ebooks/library-with-free-online-college-textbooks-makes-debut/

I am going to present two ideas that are percolating around public libraries.  The first is the increasing interest by the Maker Movement which is focused on Tech Shops, 3D Printing, and small scale manufacturing and libraries and the second is how coworking is increasingly starting to interact with the library space.

These are ideas.  I don't necessarily agree with them, but they offer interesting new opportunities which libraries could look at more closely.  Part of this comes from concepts of what libraries might look like in the future. 

Library Partners With Tek Venture

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110702/LOCAL/307029959

Is It Time to Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries and Make “TechShops”?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/03/is-it-time-to-rebuild-retool-public-libraries-and-make-techshops.html

Public Libraries, 3D Printing, FabLabs and Hackerspaces

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/public-libraries-3d-printing-fablabs-and-hackerspaces.html

Making Hackerspaces in Public Libraries

http://forum.contactcon.com/discussion/34/making-hackerspaces-in-public-libraries/p1

Perpetual Beta Awesome 3D Printing Video

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/perpetualbeta/awesome-3d-printing-video

Canton Public Library 1st Hack Day Recap

http://soup.hackerspaces.org/post/93975543/Canton-Public-Library-1st-Hack-Day-Recap

The second idea which comes up is the library as an entrepreneurial space.  There already are groups which are proposing the library be used as a coworking space.  Again, this is a small piece of a possible picture.  There are many people who come in now to use the library for its WiFi so they can work.

Coworking at the Public Library

http://www.pcworld.com/article/241574/coworking_at_the_public_library.html

Making Space for Entrepreneurs and Independent Workers

http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3568&zbrandid=4634&zidType=CH&zid=8535571&zsubscriberId=1031499408&zbdom=http://ala-publishing.informz.net

Every Town Has A Public Library-- Tony Bacigalupo who is one of the founders of New Work City in Manhattan.

http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/174758246/every-town-has-a-public-library

Could Public Libraries Become the Next Coworking Location

http://www.centernetworks.com/public-libraries-coworking

Both of these bring libraries back full circle in a way to their beginnings. I sometimes think that public libraries have lost their focus as a source of technical and scientific knowledge. 

Makers by Cory Doctorow

Makers by Cory Doctorow

This is the kind of book which will keep you up reading until you are done. It is a story of technology, creativity, and intrigue. The story is focused on digital fabricators and three dimensional printers. It describes many things which are coming very soon.

You could call this near future science fiction, but it includes a lot of things which are normally left out of science fiction stories. There are homless people, street scenes, strong sex scenes, and descriptions of every day life. This makes the story easy to relate to.

The social commentary in this story is biting. We learn what happens to fat Americans and what the future might look like if goth culture becomes mainstream. It also feeds into a diverse setting which spreads from New York to Florida to Russia.

We get a very complete picture of how a future technology revolution might occur. It is not just the story of the inventors, there are also business characters, and reporters to flesh out the story and make it more believable. Cory Doctorow is very much a participant in current issues in technological change.

Makers feels like it took from Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom an earlier book by Cory Doctorow. Disney World plays a prominent role in this book, both as something glorified and vilified. Disney adds to the wildly inventive behavior as well as the themes of exploitation and conflict.

This is a book worth reading. It is a long book, 416 pages long. It is also the kind of book where you might want to block out a couple of days to sit down and read it one sitting. This matches the fast pace of the writing.

Daily Thoughts 11/25/2009

Vincent Van Gogh, The Night Cafe, 1888

Daily Thoughts 11/25/2009

I am almost done reading Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. Right now, I am reading about the history of technology and copyright. It starts with movies, then moves to videos starting with betamax, then dvds, and finally I am reading about the internet and movies. This of course touches on the subject of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). It is quite interesting and very relevant. It speaks directly to the issue of innovation and copyright.

I just finished the book. The last chapter is on innovation in relation to copyright. William Patry makes an argument that copyright often prevents innovation and limits the adoption of new technologies. I found his observations about how Japan and South Korea have become the world leaders in broadband adaptation to be enlightening. This is a very good book.

I received another suggestion for conferences that crossover between librarianship and publishing. The International Conference of the Book is another one: http://2009.booksandpublishing.com/

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2009

Book talks, 12:15 to 12:45 : noon hour, every Thursday Nov. thru Apr.
Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2009

I am still reading Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry. Currently, the book is focused on copyright as a form of property. It describes the issue of whether copyright is a natural right or is a created social phenomenon that is governed as a commodity. There is quite a bit on the congers or early book trade groups in England. This is an entry from Wikipedia. I am not saying that it is 100% correct, it is interesting though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conger_(syndicate)

I also watched some more of Cowboy Bebop, the anime series which is turning out to be quite entertaining. I like the data dog, a Welsh Corgi named Ein, it is my favorite character.

I took a short break from reading Moral Panics and The Copyright Wars and started reading Makers by Cory Doctorow. This is a science fiction novel about the near future. It hits the dot com and high tech world like a nail on the head. It is about a new technology revolution that is coming in the near future, fabbers, or three dimensional printers capable of working with metals, plastics, composites, and other materials combined with robotics and microchips in machine shop settings. The ability to custom make almost anything up to the size of a refrigerator in a small factory.

I found this on linked in. It is two more conferences focusing on the space between libraries and publishers. Timothy Dickey mentioned it in the ALA group. There is a very fine annual conference of librarians, publishers, and vendors in Charleston, SC (just completed for this year): http://katina.info/conference/

Also, OCLC has begun to host an annual symposium to explore metadata needs between librarians and publishers: http://www.oclc.org/publisher-symposium/