CiteULike

http://www.citeulike.org/user/rjstouva

There weren't any articles on art theft on CiteULike so I had to go with art.

To YouTube or Not to YouTube

http://www.bl.uk/news/2008/pressrelease20080116.html

Over the summer I found this study which talks about libraries using new forms of social networking like YouTube and Facebook to reach patrons. According to the study patrons, especially students, don't want libraries on these. They feel libraries are encroaching on their space. I, however, think it's a great idea, but I don't want to make patrons feel like I'm invading their teritory. I've been doing some research on this and people can only agree that there's not enough research on the topic. So what do you guys think? Is it a good idea or should we as libraries invest in another technology? Also would anyone be interested in trying to do a study about this with me? I've got a lot of it worked out I just need more people to help. Let me know! It could be very interesting.

Flickr

my Flickr name is rjstouva

Week 4 readings

Whenever I talked to people outside the LIS profession and mention metadata, they always look at me. Then I explain what metadata is and they look at me a little oddly. I guess to others metadata seems odd even though I think most other fields have data about data. Maybe it's just because as librarians we like to categorize everything and give it names that seems so odd to people.

When I first read about Dublin Core I really liked the idea of it. My main interest is to work in a museum library and it seemed like the perfect tool to organize museum information and make it transferable between museums, but the more I've worked with museum objects the harder Dublin Core is to use. The 15 descriptors do make things easier, but a lot of times with these objects there is so much more to explain or describe than Dublin Core can handle. In its place I've been using a system called Cataloguing Cultural Objects. It's a newer cataloguing system that is more complex than Dublin Core, but so far it has served me well. Does anyone have thoughts about fewer descritpors and if they will serve us better in the future? I guess it goes along with minimum level cataloguing and such.

Week 2 Readings

I know I've heard of Moore's Law before, but I think every time I read about it or hear about it, it still amazes me. My dad always tells me about how he used the huge punch card computers at Cornell and it's amazing to think that now I can just pack up my Thinkpad and take it with me. And mistakes are a lot easier to fix. I do wish, however, that Moore's Law did apply to cars and that a BMW only cost twenty-five cents.