Readings for September 25, 2006
Information as Thing by Michael Buckland
I am fascinated by the idea of physical objects being sources of information. I never thought of it that way, but of course they are. There wouldn't be much to generate the "narrower" sense of information if we, as a species, were unable to gather this environmental or phenomenal information. I think this ties in with the idea of events as information; most non-textual informative objects tell not only of themselves, but also of a larger occurrence (e.g., a uniform tells us about a battle and a shooting as well as being a physical object made of cotton and metal).
The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogs by Hope Olson
An online catalog does not have to be linear! One can be provided with a web-like map of related topics for browsing, rather than a straight list, for browsing. That's why Flash has become such a popular piece of software.
Also, the whole idea of self-expression and voice could easily (in my naive view) be represented in the LCSH. Couldn't they call the heading "Self-expression"? They could then attach whatever suppressed group -- African-Americans, women, whoever (perhaps even white men). As the author discusses, the main reason for a lack of classification (or insensitive and inflexible classification) must be something in the overall culture, rather than an inability to come up with a good term.
Also, users creating links for others? Potentially useful and potentially a highjacking situation!
Scan This Book! by Kevin Kelly
Would this project truly offer every book to every person? We have a technological gap already; putting everything on the Web for free doesn't mean everyone can read it. Plus, the copyright issues! I think there are some very valid points for living authors, at least, to object to this, and they shouldn't have to "opt out" after the fact. The onus is on Google to find them and get their permission.
It also seems morally dubious to be selling e-copies of books back to the libraries that let you copy the books in the first place; shouldn't they be gratis for the lending institution?
And the linking! Yet again, by having an open way to allow anyone to link indiscriminately allows for highjacking. What if someone links Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing to an obscene magazine's website? There would have to be quite a bit of volunteer monitoring to keep that from being a problem. And what do you do for punishment? Revoke someone's linking abilities? What's to prevent them from just getting a new user name, or whatever? I do like the idea of both this and tags, but I think some serious consideration has to be done on how this would be implemented. Some of the linking seems excessive, as well. A rule of reference is to provide enough information to the patron, but not to overwhelm him with too much. There's something to be said for keeping reading private, too -- we have moved from an ancient history of orality and community reading to the personal reading we have today.
Also, the reason for the orphaned books phenomenon is that publishers want a frontlist that will churn out money, and they thus ignore the quality of the backlist. They don't cultivate solid performers; they go for the currently sensational.
Information as Thing by Michael Buckland
I am fascinated by the idea of physical objects being sources of information. I never thought of it that way, but of course they are. There wouldn't be much to generate the "narrower" sense of information if we, as a species, were unable to gather this environmental or phenomenal information. I think this ties in with the idea of events as information; most non-textual informative objects tell not only of themselves, but also of a larger occurrence (e.g., a uniform tells us about a battle and a shooting as well as being a physical object made of cotton and metal).
The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogs by Hope Olson
An online catalog does not have to be linear! One can be provided with a web-like map of related topics for browsing, rather than a straight list, for browsing. That's why Flash has become such a popular piece of software.
Also, the whole idea of self-expression and voice could easily (in my naive view) be represented in the LCSH. Couldn't they call the heading "Self-expression"? They could then attach whatever suppressed group -- African-Americans, women, whoever (perhaps even white men). As the author discusses, the main reason for a lack of classification (or insensitive and inflexible classification) must be something in the overall culture, rather than an inability to come up with a good term.
Also, users creating links for others? Potentially useful and potentially a highjacking situation!
Scan This Book! by Kevin Kelly
Would this project truly offer every book to every person? We have a technological gap already; putting everything on the Web for free doesn't mean everyone can read it. Plus, the copyright issues! I think there are some very valid points for living authors, at least, to object to this, and they shouldn't have to "opt out" after the fact. The onus is on Google to find them and get their permission.
It also seems morally dubious to be selling e-copies of books back to the libraries that let you copy the books in the first place; shouldn't they be gratis for the lending institution?
And the linking! Yet again, by having an open way to allow anyone to link indiscriminately allows for highjacking. What if someone links Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing to an obscene magazine's website? There would have to be quite a bit of volunteer monitoring to keep that from being a problem. And what do you do for punishment? Revoke someone's linking abilities? What's to prevent them from just getting a new user name, or whatever? I do like the idea of both this and tags, but I think some serious consideration has to be done on how this would be implemented. Some of the linking seems excessive, as well. A rule of reference is to provide enough information to the patron, but not to overwhelm him with too much. There's something to be said for keeping reading private, too -- we have moved from an ancient history of orality and community reading to the personal reading we have today.
Also, the reason for the orphaned books phenomenon is that publishers want a frontlist that will churn out money, and they thus ignore the quality of the backlist. They don't cultivate solid performers; they go for the currently sensational.
posted by Julia Faith | 11:22 AM
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