(Adapted from Jack Bishop's "A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen" (Houghton Mifflin 2004))
10 ounces frozen shelled edamame, about 2 cups
2 tbsp canola oil
3 medium (or 2 large) leeks, white and green parts, halved lengthwise, washed REALLY well, and cut crosswise into thin strips (abt 2 cups)
1 tbsp minced gingerroot
1 1/2 cups jasmine or long-grain rice
1 14-oz can light unsweetened coconut milk (Bishop says the recipe'll be too rich with regular coconut milk)
1 1/4 cup water
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp minced fresh cilantro (I omitted this for the party because I know some people might be especially sensitive to cilantro)
1. Steam (or boil according to the package instructions) the edamame till they're tender, but not mushy (about 7 to 10 minutes for steaming). Set aside.
2. Heat the canola oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the leeks and 1/2 tsp salt, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are very soft, about 10 minutes (or more). If/when the leeks start to brown, just lower the heat. When the leeks are done, add the ginger and cook until fragrant (abt 1 minute).
3. Add the rice and cook, stirring often, until the rice is coated with oil and glistening, about 1 minute. Add the coconut milk and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer till the rice is tender, 15 to 20 minutes (but it actually took me closer to 30 minutes!). Stir in the cooked edamame and lime juice, cover, and continue to cook over low heat till heated through, about 2 minutes. Then you stir in the cilantro and add salt to taste. You're done!
Friday, March 07, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Dumpling Soup
(adapted from November 2005 Gourmet magazine)
1 16oz package frozen Asian dumplings (also called pot-stickers)
* if you're making homemade dumplings, about 20-24 dumplings are the equivalent
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 cups thinly-sliced Napa cabbage
2 cups sliced shiitake mushroom caps
1 cup shredded or matchstick (1/8-inch-thick) carrots
1/2 cup frozen peas (note: I substituted edamame here, and it worked great)
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cook dumplings in a 6-8-quart pot of boiling unsalted water, uncovered, stirring occasionally until cooked through (5-8 minutes). Cut into a dumpling to check filling. Remove pot from heat and keep dumplings warm in hot water.
While dumplings cook, bring chicken broth to a boil in a 4-6 quart heavy pot. Add cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots and boil uncovered, stirring occasionally (3 minutes). Add peas/edamame and cook 2 minutes. Stir in scallions, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Boil until all vegetables are tender (1 minute).
Divide dumplings among 4 soup bowls w/a slotted spoon. Ladle soup over dumplings.
1 16oz package frozen Asian dumplings (also called pot-stickers)
* if you're making homemade dumplings, about 20-24 dumplings are the equivalent
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 cups thinly-sliced Napa cabbage
2 cups sliced shiitake mushroom caps
1 cup shredded or matchstick (1/8-inch-thick) carrots
1/2 cup frozen peas (note: I substituted edamame here, and it worked great)
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cook dumplings in a 6-8-quart pot of boiling unsalted water, uncovered, stirring occasionally until cooked through (5-8 minutes). Cut into a dumpling to check filling. Remove pot from heat and keep dumplings warm in hot water.
While dumplings cook, bring chicken broth to a boil in a 4-6 quart heavy pot. Add cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots and boil uncovered, stirring occasionally (3 minutes). Add peas/edamame and cook 2 minutes. Stir in scallions, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Boil until all vegetables are tender (1 minute).
Divide dumplings among 4 soup bowls w/a slotted spoon. Ladle soup over dumplings.
Thai Chicken Salad
(adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern Cookery)
1/2 lb. chicken breast
1 large Granny Smith apple
2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved lengthwise
1 cup green seedless grapes, halved lengthwise
1 can mandarin oranges in juice
1-3 serrano chiles, cut in very thin rounds
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (for garnish)
dried shallots or onions (for garnish)
-------------------------
1. Poach and shred chicken breast, or use breast meat from a rotisserie chicken. Let cool.
2. Combine 1 tsp salt with 2 1/2 cups water in a small bowl. Peel and core the apple and cut into 1/4-inch dice. As you cut and dice, put the apple pieces in the salted water. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1 tsp of salt, sugar, and lime juice. Stir until sugar dissolves, and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, combine fruit, chiles, and cilantro. Drain apples well and add to bowl. Add cooled shredded chicken. Add dressing and stir gently to combine. Garnish with chopped peanuts and dehydrated shallots or onions (original recipe calls for fried shallots, but I don't usually bother - the dehydrated kind are healthier and don't make my kitchen smell like grease).
1/2 lb. chicken breast
1 large Granny Smith apple
2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved lengthwise
1 cup green seedless grapes, halved lengthwise
1 can mandarin oranges in juice
1-3 serrano chiles, cut in very thin rounds
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (for garnish)
dried shallots or onions (for garnish)
-------------------------
1. Poach and shred chicken breast, or use breast meat from a rotisserie chicken. Let cool.
2. Combine 1 tsp salt with 2 1/2 cups water in a small bowl. Peel and core the apple and cut into 1/4-inch dice. As you cut and dice, put the apple pieces in the salted water. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1 tsp of salt, sugar, and lime juice. Stir until sugar dissolves, and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, combine fruit, chiles, and cilantro. Drain apples well and add to bowl. Add cooled shredded chicken. Add dressing and stir gently to combine. Garnish with chopped peanuts and dehydrated shallots or onions (original recipe calls for fried shallots, but I don't usually bother - the dehydrated kind are healthier and don't make my kitchen smell like grease).
Soba Noodle Salad
12-15 oz soba noodles
1 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
juice and grated peel of 1 lime
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp sriracha sauce
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, julienned
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (for garnish)
-------------------------
1. Break noodles in half and cook according to package directions (careful, soba noodles bubble over quite a bit). Drain, rinse with cold water and let cool.
2. Combine oil, vinegar, lime, soy sauce, sriracha sauce, sugar, and garlic. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Toss in carrots, peanuts and cilantro.
3. Toss sauce together with noodles and chill for at least an hour.
4. Toss again just before serving; add a little soy sauce and rice vinegar if noodles seem dry.
1 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
juice and grated peel of 1 lime
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp sriracha sauce
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, julienned
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (for garnish)
-------------------------
1. Break noodles in half and cook according to package directions (careful, soba noodles bubble over quite a bit). Drain, rinse with cold water and let cool.
2. Combine oil, vinegar, lime, soy sauce, sriracha sauce, sugar, and garlic. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Toss in carrots, peanuts and cilantro.
3. Toss sauce together with noodles and chill for at least an hour.
4. Toss again just before serving; add a little soy sauce and rice vinegar if noodles seem dry.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Bringing order to Chaos: Managing Metadata for Digital Collections
The ALCTS Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group invites you to its program at ALA in Washington, D.C., cosponsored by the LITA Digital Libraries Interest Group.
Bringing order to Chaos: Managing Metadata for Digital Collections
Sunday June 24, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Marriott at Metro Center, Salon A/B
The increasing sophistication and complexity of digital collections raise new management challenges for those libraries that build and host them. This program will discuss how metadata is used to organize, manage, and provide access to modern digital collections. Metadata for bibliographic description, technical description, digital rights management, and preservation will be discussed. Presenters will focus on practical issues surrounding the day-to-day management of digital collections in libraries.
Speakers:
Jane Greenberg, Associate Professor and Director of the Metadata Research
Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ann Caldwell, Digital Production Coordinator, Brown University
Erin Stalberg, Head, Cataloging Services, University of Virginia
M. Claire Stewart, Head, Digital Media Services, Northwestern University
Thanks also to Ringgold e-Marketing Services for their generous sponsorship of the program.
Michael Babinec
NRMIG program co-chair
Senior Monographic Cataloger
Northwestern University Library
Evanston, Illinois 60208
847-491-7583
m-babinec@northwestern.edu
NRMIG Agenda, ALA Annual 2007
Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group Agenda
ALA Annual 2007
Washington , D.C.
Sunday, January 24, 2007
8:00-10:00 AM
Four Points Sheraton, Room Franklin A.
Managed Discussion (60 minutes)
1. Jane Greenberg (Associate Professor, SILS, UNC) on the DRIADE Repository Project
2. Diane Hillman (Research Librarian,Cornell University ) on Dublin
Business Meeting (30 minutes)
1. Approval of minutes from Annual meeting
2. Reports:
a. Program Officers (Michael Babinec and Holly Mercer)
b. Publications update (Jennifer O'Brien Roper and Jennifer Wolfe)
c. CC:DA/RDA (Greta de Groat)
d. LITA (Holley Long)
3. Election of officers.
Candidates:
Chair:Louise Ratliff , UCLA
Secretary: Erin Stahlberg, UVA
Program 1: John Chapman,Minnesota
Program 2: Rebeka Irwin, Yale
Publishing 1:Jennifer O'Brien Roper , University of Maryland
Publishing 2: Sai Deng,Wichita State
Intern: Jin Ma, CUNY
CDA: Greta de Groat
ALA Annual 2007
Sunday, January 24, 2007
8:00-10:00 AM
Four Points Sheraton, Room Franklin A.
Managed Discussion (60 minutes)
1. Jane Greenberg (Associate Professor, SILS, UNC) on the DRIADE Repository Project
2. Diane Hillman (Research Librarian,
Business Meeting (30 minutes)
1. Approval of minutes from Annual meeting
2. Reports:
a. Program Officers (Michael Babinec and Holly Mercer)
b. Publications update (
c. CC:DA/RDA (Greta de Groat)
d. LITA (Holley Long)
3. Election of officers.
Candidates:
Chair:
Secretary: Erin Stahlberg, UVA
Program 1: John Chapman,
Program 2: Rebeka Irwin, Yale
Publishing 1:
Publishing 2: Sai Deng,
Intern: Jin Ma, CUNY
CDA: Greta de Groat
Monday, January 29, 2007
RDA is digital, but are the catalogers?
Quick anecdote from ALA midwinter. During the RDA Update Forum on Sunday, Jennifer Bowen was discussing how RDA is organically digital in three ways: it is being published digitally, it addresses the description of digital resources, and it addresses the access and display of resources online.
However, in a ballroom filled with over 200 people, I could count the number of laptops on one hand. The current cataloging culture is not a digital culture. This was even more evident after attending Open Repositories 2007 just a few days later. Throughout OR, in every session, dozens of people were working on laptops: looking up websites, looking up papers and projects, checking their servers, blogging.
It seems like "metadata" is going to happen. It has to happen. It was mentioned in nearly every presentation at OR. What is less clear to me is what it will look like, in terms of institutional organization, skill sets, and workflow. There is a lot of chaos and tension right now between (and even within) the disciplines of cataloging and metadata. There is controversy around RDA. There is tension between simple models and complex models. There is constant change in the standards, in the systems, in the workflows. There isn't any clear standards for what skills are needed for working with metadata. When will the landscape settle down? Will it settle down at all?
However, in a ballroom filled with over 200 people, I could count the number of laptops on one hand. The current cataloging culture is not a digital culture. This was even more evident after attending Open Repositories 2007 just a few days later. Throughout OR, in every session, dozens of people were working on laptops: looking up websites, looking up papers and projects, checking their servers, blogging.
It seems like "metadata" is going to happen. It has to happen. It was mentioned in nearly every presentation at OR. What is less clear to me is what it will look like, in terms of institutional organization, skill sets, and workflow. There is a lot of chaos and tension right now between (and even within) the disciplines of cataloging and metadata. There is controversy around RDA. There is tension between simple models and complex models. There is constant change in the standards, in the systems, in the workflows. There isn't any clear standards for what skills are needed for working with metadata. When will the landscape settle down? Will it settle down at all?
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Metadata interest group meeting at ALA Midwinter
I'm the chair of the Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group (a.k.a. NRMIG) and we are having a meeting at the upcoming ALA Midwinter meeting. Our secretary, Louise Ratliff of UCLA, organized an excellent panel of speakers. Details follow:
Date: Sunday, January 21, 2007
Time: 8:00-9:30 discussion; 9:30-10:00 business meeting
Location: Washington Convention Center Room 310
At the NRMIG meeting during ALA Midwinter in January, we will devote 90 minutes of our time to a managed discussion of issues related to metadata creation and management. Four fine colleagues have volunteered to speak for about 15 minutes each about topics of their choice. After each person’s comments there will be 5-10 minutes for discussion. The last 30 minutes of our 2-hour block will be devoted to a business meeting. Please join me in welcoming our four panel discussion participants.
Michael Esman
National Agricultural Library
The use of a citation database as the source of metadata for the National Agricultural Library institutional repository. The talk focuses on the difficulty of using author created metadata, the article and metadata submission process established by NAL, metadata mapping issues, and options for improving metadata quality.
Diane Hillmann
Cornell University
Metadata management and updating in institutional environments: problems and potential solutions. Describing what I see as the "Metadata Management Layer" that any institution pushing content should be thinking about.
Jody Perkins
Miami University Libraries
Project planning and management/work flow issues with an emphasis on what makes metadata creation different than traditional cataloging. Observations regarding the impact of "politics" on digital library projects.
Suzanne Pilsk
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
The importance of getting the right literature to the right people in the right format for them to use. This would focus on the taxonomic literature that is old but still constantly needed by researchers world wide.
Date: Sunday, January 21, 2007
Time: 8:00-9:30 discussion; 9:30-10:00 business meeting
Location: Washington Convention Center Room 310
At the NRMIG meeting during ALA Midwinter in January, we will devote 90 minutes of our time to a managed discussion of issues related to metadata creation and management. Four fine colleagues have volunteered to speak for about 15 minutes each about topics of their choice. After each person’s comments there will be 5-10 minutes for discussion. The last 30 minutes of our 2-hour block will be devoted to a business meeting. Please join me in welcoming our four panel discussion participants.
Michael Esman
National Agricultural Library
The use of a citation database as the source of metadata for the National Agricultural Library institutional repository. The talk focuses on the difficulty of using author created metadata, the article and metadata submission process established by NAL, metadata mapping issues, and options for improving metadata quality.
Diane Hillmann
Cornell University
Metadata management and updating in institutional environments: problems and potential solutions. Describing what I see as the "Metadata Management Layer" that any institution pushing content should be thinking about.
Jody Perkins
Miami University Libraries
Project planning and management/work flow issues with an emphasis on what makes metadata creation different than traditional cataloging. Observations regarding the impact of "politics" on digital library projects.
Suzanne Pilsk
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
The importance of getting the right literature to the right people in the right format for them to use. This would focus on the taxonomic literature that is old but still constantly needed by researchers world wide.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Searching WorldCat with a barcode scanner.
Last week, on a hunch, I used my desktop barcode scanner to search for titles in Worldcat. Much to my delight, it worked--sort of.
Here are the details: As a cataloger, I use the Connexion client to search for MARC catalog copy for the books I am cataloging. The search I use most often is an ISBN search in the Command Line Search box. Normally, I do this by finding the ISBN on the book (usually on the back cover or the verso of the title page) and typing in the number by hand. This is slow and tedious, but much more specific than searches by author, title, or other criteria.
Recently, I browsed OCLC's Technical Bulletin 253 on ISBN and OCLC Number Changes. A few things stood out. First of all, ISBNs changed to 13 digits on January 1st, 2007. These 13-digit ISBNs have been assigned by publishers for months, but OCLC had catalogers record them in the 024 field (standard number) rather than the 020 field (ISBN). After the official switch, OCLC has been slowly converting these 024s into 020s, hence some 13-digit numbers are indexed and searchable as ISBNs. Second, these 13-digit ISBNs are identical to EANs (formally known as International Article Numbers) which is the same number encoded in the barcode.
So, to retrieve a book with a 13-digit ISBN, all you have to do is pull up the Command Line Search and swipe your barcode. This is, as Napolean Dynamite would say, "Sweeet." It saves me a lot of typing.
Unfortunatley, all is not perfect. Not all books have a 13 digit ISBN, and not all of the books with EANs in the 024 have been converted. Message to OCLC: Please automate the conversion of as many books as possible, so I don't have to type as much.
Here are the details: As a cataloger, I use the Connexion client to search for MARC catalog copy for the books I am cataloging. The search I use most often is an ISBN search in the Command Line Search box. Normally, I do this by finding the ISBN on the book (usually on the back cover or the verso of the title page) and typing in the number by hand. This is slow and tedious, but much more specific than searches by author, title, or other criteria.
Recently, I browsed OCLC's Technical Bulletin 253 on ISBN and OCLC Number Changes. A few things stood out. First of all, ISBNs changed to 13 digits on January 1st, 2007. These 13-digit ISBNs have been assigned by publishers for months, but OCLC had catalogers record them in the 024 field (standard number) rather than the 020 field (ISBN). After the official switch, OCLC has been slowly converting these 024s into 020s, hence some 13-digit numbers are indexed and searchable as ISBNs. Second, these 13-digit ISBNs are identical to EANs (formally known as International Article Numbers) which is the same number encoded in the barcode.
So, to retrieve a book with a 13-digit ISBN, all you have to do is pull up the Command Line Search and swipe your barcode. This is, as Napolean Dynamite would say, "Sweeet." It saves me a lot of typing.
Unfortunatley, all is not perfect. Not all books have a 13 digit ISBN, and not all of the books with EANs in the 024 have been converted. Message to OCLC: Please automate the conversion of as many books as possible, so I don't have to type as much.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Downloading the Iraq Study Group Report
Although the Iraq Study Group Report can be downloaded for free, it is already a bestseller at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The notion that providing free access to a digital version of a book may enhance sales (or, at least, may not harm sales) is becoming more accepted. I've heard it discussed by authors in Publisher's Weekly, in the context of academic publishing (ETDs and Connexions), and in arguments in support of the Google Book project.
Oddly, the formatting of the book differs among the sites that provide it. The Baker Institute version is a PDF file of the book published by Vintage. It has the title page, the Vintage Books imprint, and even a copyright statement saying that "All rights are reserved." Does this mean I have to call Vintage Books to get permission to click the link and view the PDF version?
The Institute of Peace and Center for Presidential Studies versions are more generic, but their formatting differs. How many versions of this are floating around, and how do we know they are all the same? This lack of confidence in there not being a sole "authorized" version of the report is an issue that comes up in discussions of e- and pre-print archives. Perhaps more attention should have been paid to this. Or perhaps the versions are identical except for formatting, and it really isn't an issue.
Oddly, the formatting of the book differs among the sites that provide it. The Baker Institute version is a PDF file of the book published by Vintage. It has the title page, the Vintage Books imprint, and even a copyright statement saying that "All rights are reserved." Does this mean I have to call Vintage Books to get permission to click the link and view the PDF version?
The Institute of Peace and Center for Presidential Studies versions are more generic, but their formatting differs. How many versions of this are floating around, and how do we know they are all the same? This lack of confidence in there not being a sole "authorized" version of the report is an issue that comes up in discussions of e- and pre-print archives. Perhaps more attention should have been paid to this. Or perhaps the versions are identical except for formatting, and it really isn't an issue.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Where are the open access library journals?
I'm currently working on a paper that I would like to publish in a peer-reviewed library journal. Choosing a journal for publication is a serious issue, there are a number of criteria to consider. I would like to publish in an open access journal, and there are a few in the library profession, but there are significant reasons for not considering extant OA library journals.
Here are my criteria, generally in the order of importance.
There are a few open access library journals, but they are not generally high impact. The Directory of Open Access Journals and Ulrichsweb.com have listings of OA journals in LIS. Thompson's Journal Citation Reports provides statistics on the impact of various LIS journals.
One would think that College and Research Libraries would be open access. It's publisher, the Association for College and Research Libraries, is a big supporter of open access.
I'll provide an update when I finish my paper.
Here are my criteria, generally in the order of importance.
- Scope of the journal: I want to publish in a journal that covers the area addressed by my paper.
- High impact: I want to publish in a journal that is highly respected and widely read. I would like to maximize the chance that my paper is eventually cited.
- Online: It has to be online.
- Open access: I support open access for multiple reasons, including the general high level of access they provide to research, as well as the benefits they provide to authors in terms of impact.
- Non-profit: I would prefer to publish in a journal published by a scholarly/professional society or other non-profit (even though my retirement fund owns stock in Reed Elsevier, but that's another blog entry).
There are a few open access library journals, but they are not generally high impact. The Directory of Open Access Journals and Ulrichsweb.com have listings of OA journals in LIS. Thompson's Journal Citation Reports provides statistics on the impact of various LIS journals.
One would think that College and Research Libraries would be open access. It's publisher, the Association for College and Research Libraries, is a big supporter of open access.
I'll provide an update when I finish my paper.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Dessert receptions are evil and other observations from ALA Annual
My activities at ALA Annual were centered around the Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group, the most fun but worst named group in ALCTS. We've decided to simplify the name to "Metadata Interest Group," but for bureaucratic reasons, it isn't clear when we'll be able to officially change the name. Anyway, I did the following at ALA:
Saturday morning: Michael Babinec and I pitched a program proposal for ALA Annual '07 to the all-powerful ALCTS Program Committee. It sounded like they liked it, so we're going forward with the planning. It is tentatively titled "Bringing Order to Chaos: Managing Metadata for Digital Collections." It will be a two-hour program with three speakers. Each speaker will have 30 minutes and we'll end with 30 minutes of question and discussion.
Saturday midday: Fretted about our program scheduled for later that day. Michael gave a heroic effort in making sure all of our speakers were good to go.
Saturday afternoon (1:30 to 5:30): The program we sponsored, titled "Digital Rights Management and Institutional Repositories: Achieving Balance in a Complex Environment" went off without a hitch. Our speakers were great (Denise Troll Covey, Carol Hixson, Karen Coyle, and Edward Colleran) and there was engaging discussion. I would say there were two concerns. First, four hours is too long for a program. Second, the competition is fierce for attendees. We were scheduled in the same time slot as a LITA debate on searching and I image that siphoned off some people that might have been interested in our program. We had 90 in attendance, so we were successful, but we could have held more.
Sunday: Our NRMIG meeting featured a panel of five metadata librarians discussing what they do and the trends they see coming. The panelists were Arwen Hutt, Erin Stahlberg, John Chapman, Ann Caldwell, and Mary Beth Webber. It was standing room only: we had 40 chairs but about 60 in attendance.
Monday: I attended the ALCTS Presidents Program titled "Information Overload and the Quality of Your Life: Can a New Environmental Movement Restore Balance?" The speaker was David Levy of the University of Washington. Now, I like David Levy. I read his book "Scrolling Forward" and it is thoughtful and insightful. But there was something not right about the program itself. It seemed to be, well, spun by ALCTS as anti-technology, as I've mentioned before in this blog. I wish the emphasis had been more on "how can we serve the needs, and save the time, of library users by leveraging technology," but the feeling I got from the program is that attendees were taking his argument as a justification to cast technology in a malevolent light.
Lastly, I realized how insidious dessert receptions are. For some reason, librarians lose all sense of professionalism when it comes to vendor receptions. They fight over the invitations, they wax poetic about petit-fours. And this is how vendors seduce us into buying crap against our best interests. David Levy discusses in chapter nine of "Scrolling Forward" that the original scholarly journals were published by learned societies with a mostly philanthropic purpose. Commercial publishers came later. I think we need to start working back towards our philanthropic roots. Perhaps open access publishing is an indicator that some of us recognize this. Commercial publishers are accountable to company owners and company shareholders. I don't care how "good" of a company you are, this is a different motivation than what scholarly communication should be: it should be for the betterment of mankind. A profit motive corrupts that mission.
Saturday morning: Michael Babinec and I pitched a program proposal for ALA Annual '07 to the all-powerful ALCTS Program Committee. It sounded like they liked it, so we're going forward with the planning. It is tentatively titled "Bringing Order to Chaos: Managing Metadata for Digital Collections." It will be a two-hour program with three speakers. Each speaker will have 30 minutes and we'll end with 30 minutes of question and discussion.
Saturday midday: Fretted about our program scheduled for later that day. Michael gave a heroic effort in making sure all of our speakers were good to go.
Saturday afternoon (1:30 to 5:30): The program we sponsored, titled "Digital Rights Management and Institutional Repositories: Achieving Balance in a Complex Environment" went off without a hitch. Our speakers were great (Denise Troll Covey, Carol Hixson, Karen Coyle, and Edward Colleran) and there was engaging discussion. I would say there were two concerns. First, four hours is too long for a program. Second, the competition is fierce for attendees. We were scheduled in the same time slot as a LITA debate on searching and I image that siphoned off some people that might have been interested in our program. We had 90 in attendance, so we were successful, but we could have held more.
Sunday: Our NRMIG meeting featured a panel of five metadata librarians discussing what they do and the trends they see coming. The panelists were Arwen Hutt, Erin Stahlberg, John Chapman, Ann Caldwell, and Mary Beth Webber. It was standing room only: we had 40 chairs but about 60 in attendance.
Monday: I attended the ALCTS Presidents Program titled "Information Overload and the Quality of Your Life: Can a New Environmental Movement Restore Balance?" The speaker was David Levy of the University of Washington. Now, I like David Levy. I read his book "Scrolling Forward" and it is thoughtful and insightful. But there was something not right about the program itself. It seemed to be, well, spun by ALCTS as anti-technology, as I've mentioned before in this blog. I wish the emphasis had been more on "how can we serve the needs, and save the time, of library users by leveraging technology," but the feeling I got from the program is that attendees were taking his argument as a justification to cast technology in a malevolent light.
Lastly, I realized how insidious dessert receptions are. For some reason, librarians lose all sense of professionalism when it comes to vendor receptions. They fight over the invitations, they wax poetic about petit-fours. And this is how vendors seduce us into buying crap against our best interests. David Levy discusses in chapter nine of "Scrolling Forward" that the original scholarly journals were published by learned societies with a mostly philanthropic purpose. Commercial publishers came later. I think we need to start working back towards our philanthropic roots. Perhaps open access publishing is an indicator that some of us recognize this. Commercial publishers are accountable to company owners and company shareholders. I don't care how "good" of a company you are, this is a different motivation than what scholarly communication should be: it should be for the betterment of mankind. A profit motive corrupts that mission.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Real examples of library-based publishing
At the ETD 2006 conference last week, I got to hear Jim Neal of Columbia speak. He mentioned Columbia's publishing project, EPIC. Coincidentally, Kate Wittenberg, the director of EPIC wrote an editorial piece in the Chronicle of Higher Ed recently stating that while professionals in scholarly communication have been going about business as usual, "students have been quietly revolutionizing the discovery and use of information." She looks at some strategies for moving scholarly communication forward: good for her and for EPIC. I am definitely going to be paying attention to this organization.
At the conference, I spoke with some peers about the state of open access journals for academic libraries. Despite pockets of support in the profession, overall, we aren't doing a very good job. I'm preparing an article and would like to publish it open access, but I don't have many options. I did find that one journal that had been defunct for awhile, the Journal of Electronic Publishing, has been reinvigorated by another library-based publishing operation, the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University of Michigan. I was particularly thrilled to see the following paragraph on the about page of JEP:
"JEP is published by the Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO), a unit of the University of Michigan University Library. SPO is committed to the concept of library-based scholarly publishing. Indeed, the SPO believes that this is a necessary next step for academic libraries, as the university takes control not only of the creation of information, but its dissemination. To do that, the SPO has been unstinting in its effort to provide low-cost, scalable mechanisms for electronic publication and distribution of journals and scholarly databases."
At the conference, I spoke with some peers about the state of open access journals for academic libraries. Despite pockets of support in the profession, overall, we aren't doing a very good job. I'm preparing an article and would like to publish it open access, but I don't have many options. I did find that one journal that had been defunct for awhile, the Journal of Electronic Publishing, has been reinvigorated by another library-based publishing operation, the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University of Michigan. I was particularly thrilled to see the following paragraph on the about page of JEP:
"JEP is published by the Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO), a unit of the University of Michigan University Library. SPO is committed to the concept of library-based scholarly publishing. Indeed, the SPO believes that this is a necessary next step for academic libraries, as the university takes control not only of the creation of information, but its dissemination. To do that, the SPO has been unstinting in its effort to provide low-cost, scalable mechanisms for electronic publication and distribution of journals and scholarly databases."
Is looking at a 3D presentation "reading," or what?
The NYTs has an article this morning titled "Video Projections on a Globe Make Planetary Data Click." It describes the technique of projecting images (mostly generated from satellites and telescopes) onto a large globe, six feet in diameter, for the purpose of giving presentations. Alexander MacDonald of NOAA came up with the idea in 1995 and it has been growing since then. He notes that humans are visual animals and displays in three dimensions have the capacity to summarize and exchange lots of data quickly: "people get it if they can see it."
Considering that three dimensional expressions of information (what would be a good shorthand for this?) are valuable tools for teaching, learning, and exchanging information, they are worth the attention of libraries. (The litmus test should be whether they serve our values, and I would say the answer is yes.) Further, it seems that most of these kinds of things are digital. I don't include realia, because generally realia doesn't have a temporal component and isn't necessarily representational of another thing (ie. a chair is simply a chair and not representation of, say a planetary system.)
Considering that three dimensional expressions of information (what would be a good shorthand for this?) are valuable tools for teaching, learning, and exchanging information, they are worth the attention of libraries. (The litmus test should be whether they serve our values, and I would say the answer is yes.) Further, it seems that most of these kinds of things are digital. I don't include realia, because generally realia doesn't have a temporal component and isn't necessarily representational of another thing (ie. a chair is simply a chair and not representation of, say a planetary system.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
