Daily Thoughts 3/15/2011 (The Accidental Taxonomist, The Information)

Reading room, view toward the delivery room, Carnegie Library and Music Hall, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania

Daily Thoughts 3/15/2011

I finished reading The Accidental Taxonomist this morning.  It describes the options for becoming a professional taxonomist.  The general consensus is that it is a growing profession, but, most of the jobs will still be part of a larger position like being a librarian or computer programmer.  I also read some more of The Information by James Gleick.

I am relaxing today and staying home.

Daily Thoughts 3/13/2011 (The Accidental Taxonomist)

Building of the printing & publishing house of František Šimáček (1834 - 1885) with the offices of Světozor magazine in Jeruzalemská Street, Prague. Published as a part of celebrations of the 1000th issue of the named magazine, 10 September 1886, Josef Mukarovsky

Daily Thoughts 3/13/2011

I have been reading more of The Accidental Taxonomist.  It is an excellent reminder that automatic indexing progras and automatic taxonomy generators don't work by themselves.  People still need to check all the data to make sure it is clean and appropriate.  The book also reminds me that people still often start their taxonomies using microsoft excel and access and draw their category maps using mind mapping, not necessarily complex programs to start.

Daily Thoughts 3/12/2011 (the secret of kells, the information, the accidental taxonomist)

Detail from Folio 124 recto of the Book of Kells

Daily Thoughts 3/12/2011

This morning, I watched some of The Secret of Kells.  It is an animated fantasy movie loosely based on the creation of The Book of Kells.  The movie is beautiful to watch.  The animation has an otherworldly quality to it.  The style seems to pull a little bit from the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts which is quite refreshing.  The colors are vibrant, and the sense of magic and mysticism are quite beautiful.
 
There is the magic of the enchanted forest with its Celtic mythology,  the sense of wonder of the monastery, its saints, and priests, and the fearsome presence of the raiding North men.  This makes for a complete story filled with dread and wonder.  The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It is worth watching.

I finished watching it this evening.  There is a lot of symbolism in the movie; represented by celtic knotwork and illuminated writing. 

I read some more of The Accidental Taxonomist. The author is describing how taxonomies are about the relationships between words; broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms are some of the ways to think of relationships between words.  The author describes semantic terms as terms which have more complex relationships like father to son, or corporation to product. This is surprisingly useful as a way to think of how to search for things on the internet.  The more you understand taxonomies and indexes the easier it is to find things in search engines or site maps.

Right now, I am reading The Information.  James Gleick is writng about the famous Turing Test.  The proper way to describe it is The Turing Imitation Game.  This is an entry on it from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/  I have found that there are a lot of references to this both in philosophy and science fiction.  It really is where philosophy and sciecne fiction meet.  However, it is becoming less and less science fictional.

I decided it was time to renew my American Library Association membership and my Westchester Library Association membership.  I am hoping they have something to offer this year that will stand out.

Daily Thoughts 3/10/2011 (The Accidental Taxonomist, The Information)

De zachte uren, Richard Roland Holst, Oil on Eternit, 1911-1912

Daily Thoughts 3/11/2011

I read a little bit of The Information by James Gleick on the way to work.  I also read a bit more of The Accidental Taxonomist.  I am thinking about the idea of ontology which is not something which I have thought about much before.

I updated the Twitter account this morning, did a bit more weeding, picked up a few surveys, and checked the displays.

On the way home, I read some more of The Accidental Taxonomist.  The author was talking about who became a taxonomist.  Almost half of taxonomists come from a library science background.  Others seem to come from programming, publishing, or database backgrounds.  The story seems very similar to the story of content strategy or information architecture where there is a close link to library science.  The list of titles which would include taxonomy includes words like information, information architecture, content, analyst, taxonomist, content strategist, and similar words.

Web Bits

Filter or Be Flooded: Publisher As Curator

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/46359-filter-or-be-flooded-publisher-as-curator.html

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#

I think it would be very interesting for a library to have ties to a coworking space, tech shop, or fab lab.

Daily Thoughts 3/9/2011 (The Information, The Accidental Taxonomist)

Portrait of Prime Minister Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin. Oil on canvas. 116 × 76 cm. The State Radischev Art Museum, Saratov., 1910

Daily Thoughts 3/9/2011

I read some more of The Information by James Gleick this morning.  I am enjoying reading about the birth of computing and the creation of the electric telegraph.  This book is very much a book about the history of technology.  There are a lot of entertaining anecdotes which make the writing very readable.

The book, The Accidental Taxonomist by Heather Hedden came in for me to read.  Hopefully, I will learn something new from reading this.

Today, I checked the displays and did some weeding in the storage area.  I also took some time to look over the surveys.  There are more print surveys coming in than online surveys.  I also checked on the twitter account.  Things have slowed down a little bit.  Our budget is very tight so that there is not much money for ordering.  It would be nice if people brought in more donations.

I am also hoping that people join our friends group http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/friends  or donate to the foundation  http://www.mvplfoundation.org/  .  I know times are financially difficult all over for libraries.  This is true not just in the United States but also in the United Kingdom. 

We also opened the computer lab for an hour so people could search for jobs.

On the way home, I read some more of The Information.  I also started reading The Accidental Taxonomist by Heather Hedding.  She has a website tied in with the book: http://www.hedden-information.com/Accidental-Taxonomist-Websites.htm

Web Bits

ROI: The $200 Tablet Computer
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703662804576188901890884360.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read