5.22.2008
Facebook's Spring Cleaning
Good news for us Facebook lovers: they're cleaning it up in June, organizing all that stuff on our profiles into separate tabs for information, feeds, photos, etc. I for one will be ecstatic to see my profile page be a little less.... yeah. A little less, period. And I won't have to get rid of my iBook account to do it!
5.20.2008
Microcosm
I've always found it interesting that our docs department, like many, is essentially a microcosm of the library as a whole. We process, catalog, shelve, work a reference desk, etc. It used to be that one of the only functions we didn't perform was the digitization itself. Now we're doing that, as well, although just for one particular project.
A really awesome aspect of our library's Digital Projects Unit (DPU) is that they work on a lot of grant projects in any given year. It's great because, of course: important materials are digitized, our library/institution gain prestige, and it's one of the only parts of the library that is actively bringing in money. However, the nature of grant work means that the DPU's schedule of projects is quite different from any other library department. Grant work typically has a specific deadline and is also a profit-maker, both of which translate to getting a lot of work done in a short period of time. These bursts of productivity occur at various, often not predictable, periods during the year, meaning that DPU prefers to complete library projects in the quiet periods between grant projects, or for various brief spurts during those projects. This works well for the "slice and dice" projects of thick volumes (meaning simple metadata in small amounts) where we're either not preserving the original materials or we're having them rebound (in either case, the pages can be sliced from the original bindings and scanned by an automated process). Past projects of this type from GovDocs have been the FCC Record and the Experiment Station Reports.
However, some things either can't be sliced or, more often, they are very small pamphlet-type documents. These require more detailed metadata than a serial like the two projects above, as well as requiring more metadata per inch of documents (DPU calculates project based on inches of material, rather than pages).
In GovDocs, our problem fitting into this workflow for our A-Z project (cataloging and digitizing all pre-1960 documents) is two-fold. First, we hired a student primarily for this project, and it's hard to keep him on steady work when we've got complete metadata records waiting for scanned documents. Second, not knowing when DPU will have one of those "open" timeslots means that we end up keeping items off the shelf longer than our designated 30-day period. That's already caused a few issues with the Farmer's Bulletins, when patrons have requested them.
Our department's suggestion to resolve the issue for all parties was to have our student spent part of his time scanning the documents in the DPU. However, DPU doesn't have enough compuer workstations--but more than enough scanners, so they graciously sent one over to our student's station in Docs. So far, this seems to be an excellent solution--we can keep the workflow moving at our own pace, and our student can continue to work his regular schedule, without needing to be worked into the DPU rotation. And this way, DPU can concentrate on our "slice and dice" projects, which work better for them instead.
A really awesome aspect of our library's Digital Projects Unit (DPU) is that they work on a lot of grant projects in any given year. It's great because, of course: important materials are digitized, our library/institution gain prestige, and it's one of the only parts of the library that is actively bringing in money. However, the nature of grant work means that the DPU's schedule of projects is quite different from any other library department. Grant work typically has a specific deadline and is also a profit-maker, both of which translate to getting a lot of work done in a short period of time. These bursts of productivity occur at various, often not predictable, periods during the year, meaning that DPU prefers to complete library projects in the quiet periods between grant projects, or for various brief spurts during those projects. This works well for the "slice and dice" projects of thick volumes (meaning simple metadata in small amounts) where we're either not preserving the original materials or we're having them rebound (in either case, the pages can be sliced from the original bindings and scanned by an automated process). Past projects of this type from GovDocs have been the FCC Record and the Experiment Station Reports.
However, some things either can't be sliced or, more often, they are very small pamphlet-type documents. These require more detailed metadata than a serial like the two projects above, as well as requiring more metadata per inch of documents (DPU calculates project based on inches of material, rather than pages).
In GovDocs, our problem fitting into this workflow for our A-Z project (cataloging and digitizing all pre-1960 documents) is two-fold. First, we hired a student primarily for this project, and it's hard to keep him on steady work when we've got complete metadata records waiting for scanned documents. Second, not knowing when DPU will have one of those "open" timeslots means that we end up keeping items off the shelf longer than our designated 30-day period. That's already caused a few issues with the Farmer's Bulletins, when patrons have requested them.
Our department's suggestion to resolve the issue for all parties was to have our student spent part of his time scanning the documents in the DPU. However, DPU doesn't have enough compuer workstations--but more than enough scanners, so they graciously sent one over to our student's station in Docs. So far, this seems to be an excellent solution--we can keep the workflow moving at our own pace, and our student can continue to work his regular schedule, without needing to be worked into the DPU rotation. And this way, DPU can concentrate on our "slice and dice" projects, which work better for them instead.
5.14.2008
Snaps for UNT's CRS Reports Archive
I just had to mention that UNT is listed as the top website for CRS reports, according to this OhMyGov post by Andrew Einhorn.
Yay--and thanks, Andrew!!
Yay--and thanks, Andrew!!
5.01.2008
Free Comic Book Day 2008!
I first heard of this awesome experience while in the Star Wars Line in 2005. (Yes, believe it or not, I was geeky enough to sleep, eat, work, and do my homework in line at a theater for three weeks, but somehow wasn't geeky enough to know that there was a holiday where places gave out free comics. Go figure.)
In any case, this Saturday is the big FCB Day, coming to an independent comic store near you! Click on the image above to be taken to the website, which answers all your questions ("What... they're really free?" Yes, Viriginia), and also provides a handy comic-book store locator for those of you not already on a first-name basis with the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.
Er, does he actually have a first-name? (Oh indeed he does: Jeff. Why, thank you again Wikipedia, haven of pop culture trivia.)
But I digress... Go enjoy yourself some free comics, and if you don't read comics (the mind boggles), then get an issue or two for your geeky friends and/or patrons. While I was at TLA, I attended this great session on graphic novels with Gene Luen Yang, Tuan Nguyen, and Laura Jewell. One of the library-programming suggestions was to ask your local comics shop ahead of time if they'll donate their extra FCBD copies to you the day afterward. They'd made great giveaways for teen programs and such (I'm pondering using them next year to lure geeky college students through our doors).
4.22.2008
Review: Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother"
I just finished reading Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother (to be released April 29th), and it was amazing. Yes, it's marketed as YA (young adult) fiction, but this is a serious--as well as enjoyable--book on a serious topic. It's about life in San Francisco after a terrorist attack that prompts the government to turn the city into a police state with constant surveillance, loss of freedom, etc. A group of high school hackers fight back, and make a lot of poignant arguments about freedom and fighting for what you believe in.
I read this book in about five hours total, I think--all of which were spent commuting on DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to and from the TLA conference (which I blogged over at the TLA Blog). I highly, highly recommend it. And if you'd like a short taste of it, Cory's got a mp3 of himself reading a selection of it, available for free download. (Caution: novel (and this excerpt) contains some profanity and graphic scenes.) You can also read more of his podcasts here.
And here's high praise from one of my favorite authors:
"I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year, and I'd want to get it into the hands of as many smart 13 year olds, male and female, as I can. Because I think it'll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won't be the same after they've read it. Maybe they'll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it'll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they'll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they'll want to open their computer and see what's in there. I don't know. It made me want to be 13 again right now and reading it for the first time, and then go out and make the world better or stranger or odder. It's a wonderful, important book, in a way that renders its flaws pretty much meaningless."
I read this book in about five hours total, I think--all of which were spent commuting on DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to and from the TLA conference (which I blogged over at the TLA Blog). I highly, highly recommend it. And if you'd like a short taste of it, Cory's got a mp3 of himself reading a selection of it, available for free download. (Caution: novel (and this excerpt) contains some profanity and graphic scenes.) You can also read more of his podcasts here.
And here's high praise from one of my favorite authors:
"I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year, and I'd want to get it into the hands of as many smart 13 year olds, male and female, as I can. Because I think it'll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won't be the same after they've read it. Maybe they'll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it'll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they'll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they'll want to open their computer and see what's in there. I don't know. It made me want to be 13 again right now and reading it for the first time, and then go out and make the world better or stranger or odder. It's a wonderful, important book, in a way that renders its flaws pretty much meaningless."
4.17.2008
Chatting with Gene Luen Yang
My current Facebook status: Starr is SQUEE! She just got to chat with Gene Luen Yang while getting her copy of "American Born Chinese" autographed.
We ended up, I realized, talking about homemade tamales and how my family was probably the whitest family who ever had a Christmas tradition of making authentic tamales. I think this came somehow out of my telling Gene I was born in CA (he's from Oakland) and first read his book there... and then something about only being able to live in states without winter and with authentic Mexican food.
Man, I can babble. (Shudder.)
It was awesome, though--he's easy to talk to, and I got to tell him what I really wanted, which was how glad and impressed I was that his faith shows through in this book. I kept thinking, while reading it, "Is he saying...? That seems like a Christian theme..." --the dedication of his book gave another clue, and then his website shows more of his Catholic comics and the fact that he teaches at a Catholic high school. (I also asked him how he manages teaching and writing comics--he said it's particularly hard right now, and he's going to be teaching just part-time next year. Kudos for him! Yay for making a living off of art!!)
This makes up for all the other authors that I've missed autographing at TLA and ALA conferences. Plus, I think this is the first comic I've ever had autographed... haven't had that many books autographed, actually. It's been, ahem, mostly action figures. Of Star Wars characters. But then, I've been going to scifi conventions longer than I've been going to library conferences.
Now, if I could just get one of my Gaiman books autographed... I'd pick Death: The High Cost of Living, for sure. Oh wait, Stardust. Dangit.
Er... and I'm actually doing quite a bit of blogging, and soon should have a whole load of TLA photos up on my Flickr page--it's just all at the TLA blog at the moment. I'll probably update those links here next week--I'm primarily linking to content that I post on my wiki, anyway.
We ended up, I realized, talking about homemade tamales and how my family was probably the whitest family who ever had a Christmas tradition of making authentic tamales. I think this came somehow out of my telling Gene I was born in CA (he's from Oakland) and first read his book there... and then something about only being able to live in states without winter and with authentic Mexican food.
Man, I can babble. (Shudder.)
It was awesome, though--he's easy to talk to, and I got to tell him what I really wanted, which was how glad and impressed I was that his faith shows through in this book. I kept thinking, while reading it, "Is he saying...? That seems like a Christian theme..." --the dedication of his book gave another clue, and then his website shows more of his Catholic comics and the fact that he teaches at a Catholic high school. (I also asked him how he manages teaching and writing comics--he said it's particularly hard right now, and he's going to be teaching just part-time next year. Kudos for him! Yay for making a living off of art!!)
This makes up for all the other authors that I've missed autographing at TLA and ALA conferences. Plus, I think this is the first comic I've ever had autographed... haven't had that many books autographed, actually. It's been, ahem, mostly action figures. Of Star Wars characters. But then, I've been going to scifi conventions longer than I've been going to library conferences.
Now, if I could just get one of my Gaiman books autographed... I'd pick Death: The High Cost of Living, for sure. Oh wait, Stardust. Dangit.
Er... and I'm actually doing quite a bit of blogging, and soon should have a whole load of TLA photos up on my Flickr page--it's just all at the TLA blog at the moment. I'll probably update those links here next week--I'm primarily linking to content that I post on my wiki, anyway.
4.11.2008
Gene Luen Yang at TLA!
I'm preparing for TLA's Annual Conference next week, printing fliers, picking out sessions to attend, and jotting down oh so many meetings on my schedule. (Speaking of which, I'm particularly happy it's in Dallas this year. I get to sleep in my own bed, see my husband each night, and I'm finally going to get to make use of Dallas's growing public transportation system. Yay!)
I was looking through the Friday 10am sessions, and blinked a bit when I saw a session, not only on graphic novels, but featuring Gene Luen Yang, the author of American Born Chinese, one of the best comics I've ever read, and the first graphic novel to win ALA's Printz Award, as well as to be nominated for the National Book Award, as a speaker!
I first read this novel a year ago, and was lucky enough to finish it while on vacation in the Bay Area--after which we promptly visited San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, where a few panels of Yang's work were on display.
I can't really explain the wonder of this work--you'll just have to find out yourself. I highly recommend purchasing a copy for yourself, and one for your YA or graphic novel collection; its clever weaving of three narratives makes it as suitable for college and adult reading as it is for teens.
I was looking through the Friday 10am sessions, and blinked a bit when I saw a session, not only on graphic novels, but featuring Gene Luen Yang, the author of American Born Chinese, one of the best comics I've ever read, and the first graphic novel to win ALA's Printz Award, as well as to be nominated for the National Book Award, as a speaker!
I first read this novel a year ago, and was lucky enough to finish it while on vacation in the Bay Area--after which we promptly visited San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, where a few panels of Yang's work were on display.
I can't really explain the wonder of this work--you'll just have to find out yourself. I highly recommend purchasing a copy for yourself, and one for your YA or graphic novel collection; its clever weaving of three narratives makes it as suitable for college and adult reading as it is for teens.
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