Pat Ragains: Docs Librarian in the News
Pat Ragains, Business and Government Information Center librarian at the University of Nevada Reno Library, was quoted in a Reno Gazette Journal article about patent resources at UNR. According to the article, "The University of Nevada, Reno library is one of 80 sites in the nation that is an official Patent & Trademark Depository Library" and has been helping patrons since 1983. Pat, congratulations on the getting the word out about UNR's valuable holdings! Do you know of a media story highlighting some sort of government documents depository? Let us know! Continue reading
P2P Knowledge low in academic librarians?
As I mentioned in my posting on social psychology for librarians, people tend to follow the "central" route of attitude change only if these three conditions are present:
- Relevance to audience;
- Audience has knowledge in the domain;
- Audience has sense of personal responsibility.
Overall, academic librarians demonstrated low knowledge levels (mean quiz score = 49 percent), rarely used P2P applications, and exhibited indifferent attitudes (total neutral responses = 42 percent) toward these burgeoning information technologies.Considering that LOCKSS is a P2P technology, maybe it shouldn't be surprising that the mostly academic documents depository community doesn't quite grasp the power of the P2P approach. But we don't have to stay unaware of such technologies. Here are a few things you can do to become aware of what's available and what it can do:
- Read James R's P2P Backgrounder
- Check out our Digital Libraries Technologies Page
- Read LOCKSS for Librarians
Rovere on Privacy (1958)
The technological erosion of privacy has been an important issue for a long time. Richard H. Rovere's article is as timely today as the day he wrote it almost 50 years ago, but his analysis of the issues is clearer, more complete, and more rational than most of what we hear today.
- The Invasion of Privacy: Technology and the Claims of Community, by Richard H. Rovere, The American Scholar, Autumn 1958 issue.
But the fact of the matter is that it is not narcotics peddlers whose privacy has been more efficiently violated by the use of the new techniques; the net has not been drawn tighter against society’s enemies — it has simply been spread for a larger catch…. It is one thing to deceive and trap a dope pusher by almost any means available, and quite another to tap the phone of, let us say, a philanthropic foundation on the chance of turning up a relationship between it and some citizen of a heretical turn of mind.Rovere wrote the "Washington" (later "Affairs of State") column for The New Yorker for more than 30 years, until his death in 1979. Continue reading
Federated Search Systems For Government Information
Exploring the deep web Internal and external federated systems lead users to treasures that regular search engines can't find By Drew Robb, GCN, 06/04/07 issue.
Google makes search look simple, but in fact, search is not simple, particularly when completeness is important. ...Public search engines may be fine for locating a hotel in Singapore, but not for professional research.Continue reading
UW Libraries leverage digital content with Wikipedia
Not strictly documents related, but the latest issue of D-Lib features a library using Wikipedia in a ethical way to raise awareness and usage of their digital materials: Lally, Ann M., and Carolyn E. Dunford. "Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections" D-Lib Magazine 13(5/6)(May/June 2007)(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html) The UW folks seems to have good before and after tables and graphs to demonstrate that it has been well worth for librarians to add quality library-based content to Wikipedia. Anyone else in the documents world doing this besides UNT? Continue reading