LOCKSS-USDOCS at Best Practices Exchange
I just got back from Best Practices Exchange 2010 (check out the growing list of available presentations and the twitter back channel!). It was a really solid conference -- a healthy mix of archivists, documents and other librarians, and technologists having project-oriented presentations with a healthy dose of discussion. The cherry on top was the engaging keynote by the David Ferriero, the Archivist of the US (AOTUS) (here's a good summary of AOTUS' talk). I was on a panel with Arlene Weible from OR State Library (Arlene gave a great talk on RAT, OSL's tool for collecting state documents -- I hope she posts her slides soon!) and presented about LOCKSS-USDOCS, the distributed documents preservation project. Take a look at the slides. We're looking for other participant libraries so email me if your library is interested (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu).
Welcome Pratt library students to the FGI podium
We've got a special treat for you this month. Several Pratt Library School students have volunteered to be FGI guest bloggers for the month of October. So welcome Johanna Blakely-Bourgeois, Krissa Corbett Cavouras, and Sara Medlicott to the FGI podium. Johanna, Kriss and Sara have agreed to take turns and put their names at the end of their posts so readers will be able to tell the difference between them. Take it away! And thanks also to SILS faculty member Debbie Rabina for helping to put this opportunity together for her students. Many thanks also goes to Nathan Yang, our guest blogger for September! Continue reading
Pratt SILS students, bloggers of the month for October 2010
Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science (SILS) October 2010 FGI Guest Blogging Biographies Johanna Blakely-Bourgeois started her career as an attorney, having worked in the real estate industry for 8 years in New York City and having litigated bankruptcy and foreclosure cases for 2 years in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey prior to that. She is currently a full-time graduate student at Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, navigating the world of librarianship technology and terminology. Currently studying French and a former student of German, she seeks one day to steer her librarianship career into international waters. Krissa Corbett Cavouras worked as a writer and editor before beginning her master's degree in Information and Library Science at Pratt SILS. Her focus is on issues of copyright and open access, and her concentration at Pratt has been in legal research and government documents. She has worked at the Bar Association of the City of New York in their Library, and for the Copyright Advisory Office at Columbia University Libraries. She currently serves as Dr. Pattuelli's Graduate Assistant at Pratt SILS. Sara Medlicott is a Masters Candidate at the Pratt School of Information and Library Science. She is currently working on a digitization project at the Pratt Center for Community Development and volunteering with Correctional Services at New York Public Library. This past summer, Sara served as visiting library faculty at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City, where she taught a course on digital research. Continue reading
U.S. and British Documents Give No Indication Alternatives Were Seriously Considered
In its second "electronic briefing book" of three, the National Security Archive re-examines several aspects of the run-up to the Iraq war. THE IRAQ WAR -- PART II: Was There Even a Decision?, National Security Archive, George Washington University, October 1, 2010.
Contrary to statements by President George W. Bush or Prime Minister Tony Blair, declassified records from both governments posted on the Web today reflect an early and focused push to prepare war plans and enlist allies regardless of conflicting intelligence about Iraq’s threat and the evident difficulties in garnering global support. Perhaps most revealing about today’s posting on the National Security Archive’s Web site is what is missing -- any indication whatsoever from the declassified record to date that top Bush administration officials seriously considered an alternative to war.Continue reading
Survey of (academic) research on Twitter in politics
There has been a lot of research done by academic and consulting institutions regarding Twitter adoption in politics. Between February 2010 to now, I think that there have been at least a dozen circulated studies on this topic. The fact that this topic is studied by consultants, economists, marketers, and political scientists suggests that the topic is important; or at the very least, a trend. A number of interesting results have emerged. Collectively, all of these studies give us a refined picture of a typical politician who Tweets. Williams and Gulati (2010) find that those who adopt Twitter are politicians who have received a lot of contributions. Well funded politicians often have better access and information about "trendy" communication technologies. Alternatively, well funded politicians may have more connections and benefit more from technology that (presumably) maintains these connections. Lassen and Brown (2010) find that politicians in less competitive districts are more likely to adopt Twitter. It is hard to say why this pattern emerges. However, our well publicized paper (Chi and Yang, 2010) may provide a hint. Our study finds that the positive effect on adoption associated with the lack of competitiveness (i.e. electoral support) is largest for inexperienced politicians. This pattern seems to fit with the story which links the benefit associated with transparency and electoral support. Those with strong support have an incentive to maintain their constituents' trust. This incentive is strongest for those who are new to the game and have yet to solidify their positive reputation. Now, this leaves the plethora of studies that seem to be fixated on showing: Republicans are more likely to Tweet (or have higher "Digital IQ"). You can find some of these studies here, here and here. There are probably more studies floating around. But these are the ones that I believe have gained the most traction in the public arena. Continue reading