The big theme in the current era of librarianship is to be user-centered. Being user centered is the key to maintaining relevance, changing with the times, and erasing the barriers … Read more Motives in the conception of the “user” in user-centered service design
I want to suggest a possible strategy for reference departments in academic libraries. I think a lot of library administrators who have an eye on the future see less of … Read more The “assessment piece” and reference strategy
I have an article in the current issue of Progressive Librarian that I have put online this morning: “The Library Paraprofessional Movement and the Deprofessionalization of Librarianship.” It says something … Read more The Library Paraprofessional Movement and the Deprofessionalization of Librarianship
The talk I gave in Alberta on February 5th was recorded. The recording is now on the web in mp3 form. Toni Samek’s introduction feels a bit grand, but the … Read more Podcast of Alberta Talk: Disintermediation 2.0
Notice that I am not using the word “ontology.” I’ll get into why later, but if you’ve read any Heidegger you can guess… Hope Olson, Sandy Berman, and many others … Read more Quick note on taxonomic transparency
The Preface and Introduction to André Cossette’s Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of Librarianship are now online. The Preface is my explanation of why I chose to … Read more Preface and Intro to Humanism and Libraries
Something is happening in Minnesota that is worth noting if you’re interested in the public sphere. There is a mining project in the Iron Range that is awaiting state approval. … Read more Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer will not be in attendance
This post is a presentation of two lists of priorities – first, priorities of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT), and second, a list of the kind of issue that … Read more Two sets of priorities
This post presents a second look at the familiar story regarding the transformation of information consumers into information producers and the idea that this shift is making book publishing companies … Read more On the contribution of publishers
Leveraging our impact with technology means certain things. It means substituting machine processes, which are good at certain kinds of thinking, for intellectual processes, which are good at other kinds … Read more People and Machines
“Verbiage” is a derisive word describing prose that uses many words to say not a lot, or more particularly, prose that uses words carelessly, to create impressions without attending to … Read more “Verbiage,” “Intuitiveness,” respect for language, respect for users
Two recent articles in the mainstream press are telling us that paper books and physical libraries are dead (Boston Globe and CNN.com). One of the easiest things to forget about … Read more Death of a thousand paper cuts
There is something that people in the book world often don’t understand about copyright. When I say book world I mean librarians, booksellers, reviewers, researchers, authors, and sometimes publishers. A … Read more Something people in the book world often misunderstand about copyright
Just a brief note on a topic I will return to later… I find that librarians think of change in one of two ways: Change is happening to the profession; … Read more Professionalism and attitudes toward change
A cultural theme in America for the past few decades has been a certain conservative populist “anti-elitism.” Barack Obama’s victory despite his vulnerability to the charge of elitism – owing … Read more Anti-elitism and academic libraries
There is a common assumption that trends should be identified quickly so that we can more quickly and more fully adapt to them, in order to stay competitively ahead-of-the-curve and … Read more Interior space as a social cause
I attended Media in Transition 6: Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission in Cambridge, MA, April 24-26. (Follow that link for a summary of what the conference was about.) Here … Read more Media in Transition 6… Reactions…
“Exploring the Ethical Implications of Technological Change through the Thought of Walter Ong and Other Media Theorists” That’s the title of my paper for the conference coming up this weekend … Read more Exploring the Ethical Implications of Media Technology Through the Thought of Walter Ong
This is going to be my obnoxious post for the year, the kind of post I write periodically that leads to ugly Google results on my name. There are things … Read more Library 2.0 talk enters backwardation
In the most recent issue of ALA’s email newsletter, AL Direct, there is an item (“More authors turn to web publishing”) about the growing popularity of author services companies like … Read more POD vs. author services publishing