Starting from Scratch
Posted On Jul 8 2008Carl Sagan once said: “If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” I’ve been taken lately with all the efforts in library land to build things from scratch, as if there is no starting point, no viability–either technically or philosophically–from which to begin. Ironically, the “2.0” true believers seem to be talking as if they are reinventing the universe more than moving libraries from version 1.0 to version 2.0. It’s pretty hard (though not impossible) to move to v.2 when the first step is to throw away everything from v.1. Where …
Artificial Unintelligence
Posted On Jun 3 2008Five years ago, I wrote a book. Originally titled “Strange Bedfellow,” this work on the relationships between libraries, vendors, and dot-com entities was re-titled The Ultimate Digital Library: Where the New Information Players Meet. Some of the better parts of that book seemed so radical then and look entirely passe now. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since it came out, but where was I supposed to go from “Ultimate?” The More Ultimate Digital Library? I was actually looking to see if I could pick up some used copies since I have given all but one of mine …
No, It’s the Network, Stupid
Posted On May 29 2008My friend and colleague Chrystie Hill reminded me the other day that I was wrong about something. This was no revelation, this happens quite frequently. In a conversation about OCLC’s various assets, I was going on again about leveraging the vast amounts of data in the WorldCat bibliographic database and all the potential of the WorldCat Registry. Chrystie reminded me, as anyone working in the WebJunction group should, that it is the network of people that matters. They create the data in WorldCat. They arethe institutions in the Registry. This truism was made all the more poignant by a really …