Thursday, April 23, 2009

Twitter Cops

Twitter cops...

"The fate of "Paper of Record", GOOG, and the Tacit Call for DIY Attitudinal Librarians

I have had all intentions of posting/commenting on this story ever since I ran across it on InsideHigerEd a few days ago. But, alas and alack, I am end of the semester swamped. So, here is an excerpt and a link. Evidently, Google does not always have the same (intellectual) project in mind that the academy does 100% of the time.

"As digital archives have become more important and more popular, there are varying schools of thought among scholars about how best to guarantee that they will be around for good. Some think that the best possibility is for the creators of the archives -- people generally with some passion for the topic -- to keep control. Others favor acquisition, thinking that larger entities provide more security and resources for the long run."

And here's the rub...

"The fate of "Paper of Record," a digital archive of early newspapers with a particularly strong collection of Mexican newspapers, may be cited in the years ahead as an example of the dangers of purchase by a large entity. Paper of Record was purchased (secretly) by Google in 2006, and shortly after Google took over management of the site, late last year, the archive disappeared from view. After weeks in which historians have complained to Google and others about the loss of their ability to work, the previous owner of the archive has received permission to bring the archive back for some period of time, and resumption of service could start as early next week."

Please read more here.

UNC School of Information & Library Science Ranked #1

U.S. News Media Group has released the 2010 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools. The rankings are available online at www.usnews.com/grad and are to be featured in the May U.S.News & World Report magazine (on newsstands April 28, 2009). The 2010 rankings are of graduate school programs for a variety of disciplines, however some disciplines are not ranked this year. Information and Library Science is one of those; rankings for ILS programs come out every two years.

UNC's School of Information and Library Science was ranked #1 in 2009. UNC SILS shares this distinction with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The rankings are here. Of particular interest to me, UNC SILS is ranked number one in digital librarianship.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

"Laptop Hunter" Videos

I just wanted to post the most recent video in what I think is a pretty interesting exchange...it's the new "Homeless Frank" release. The video is a parody of Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" series; some Brooklyn Mac disciples crafted it. Lots of discussion around this. I am digging this collaborative exchange among various authors and publics...fluid, flexible, and indicative of how we communicate identity and ideology in "New Times". More curation to come.

And now, the Mac devotee response to MSFT!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Use Facebook, Lose a Letter Grade

Ah, here's a great piece detailing the academic consequences of Facebook use. Watch out young scholars...your new literacies and/or slacking off could portend poor curricular performance.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Kurt Cobain and 15 Years

Not enough coverage of Kurt Cobain's death, imho. A Seattle Times piece here. A New York Daily News piece here. For a band that brought music out of the '80s and soothed the pain of the Bush I trainwreck, there needs to be more. My students were three when this happened. Where is their Cobain? What discourse do I give them? There is a crack in the world and I don't know how we fix it.