I enjoyed this article from the May 1st issue of Library Journal by Barbara Fister: “Publishers & Librarians: Two Cultures, One Goal.” Barbara is an academic librarian in Minnesota and an author of mystery novels at the same time. Her work as a popular author gives her an insight into the world of publishing that … Read more Barbara Fister on librarians and publishers
Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian, edited by Alison Lewis, has been out for a while. I was just taking a look at it, and it occurred to me that it might be a good thing to put Alison’s introduction to the book online, so I have done that. It’s a good, quick read … Read more Questioning Library Neutrality – Introduction
There is a common assumption that trends should be identified quickly so that we can more quickly and more fully adapt to them, in order to stay competitively ahead-of-the-curve and relevant. But trends are not all the same. Let me give you an analogy. I have heard of two primary policy themes in response to … Read more Interior space as a social cause
I will write about this later, but I will just note this for the moment: Wolfram Alpha is not just not ready for prime time. It is an intellectual travesty. The idea of jumping from concepts to numbers without any attention to how the numbers are produced and how they can or can’t be compared … Read more Wolfram Alpha: Bad Idea!!
Speaking of Information: The Library Juice Quotation Book Compiler: Rory Litwin Editor: Martin Wallace Foreword: Michael Gorman Price: $15.00 ISBN: 978-0-9802004-1-6 5.06″ by 7.81″ 172 Pages Published: May 2009 Speaking of Information: The Library Juice Quotation Book is a compilation of quotations originally collected for the “Quotes of the Week” section of Library Juice, an … Read more Speaking of Information: The Library Juice Quotation Book
Library Juice Press and Litwin Books will be sharing a booth with the Alternative Press Center in the exhibits hall at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, July 9-14. We will be at booth number 1637. I hope you’ll drop by and say Hi. On Saturday night, July 11th, from 7pm to 9pm, there will … Read more Library Juice Press at ALA
Progressive Librarians Guild Calls for Elsevier to End Corrupt Publishing Practices and for Library Associations to Take Advocacy Role on Behalf of Scientific Integrity http://libr.org/plg/elsevier.php Progressive Librarians Guild. May 12, 2009. Elsevier, which describes itself as the “world’s leading publisher of scientific and health information,” was partner to the efforts of Merck & Co. to … Read more PLG statement on Elsevier’s fake journals
John Buschman sent a link out this morning to this article by Chris Dede in the current EDUCAUSE Review, “A Seismic Shift in Epistemology. The article examines the deep changes in the meaning of knowledge in the academy and elsewhere that are being effected by new technologies, with a focus on Wikipedia and other Web … Read more A Seismic Shift in Epistemology
Peter Suber is covering the Elsevier scandal on his Open Access News blog, and reports that the STM publisher has now admitted to publishing six fake journals out of their Australia office, without the proper disclosures of advertising for drug companies, etc. I am curious to see whether library associations, which receive large donations from … Read more Elsevier admits to six fake journals
John Miedema, author of Slow Reading, is doing an Author Chat on LibraryThing. His chat there will be going until May 22nd. Hope you’ll add your thoughts….
For Goodreads users there is now a Goodreads Group for Library Juice Press and Litwin Books. If someone out there would be interested in helping make the group lively, let me know and we can cooperate. Cheers….
A co-worker of mine shared this video with me, done by somebody she knows at the library at Indiana University. I think it is great, creates such a sunny feeling about their library’s services, and gets the important things across. I am going to talk my co-worker into copying Carrie Donovan so that we can … Read more ASK video
This is really outrageous if true and ought to lead to some serious consequences for Elsevier. An online magazine called The Scientist has reported that Elsevier published a two-off fake journal with reprinted and summarized articles that presented data favorable to Merck products. And that’s all that was in these journals. They were made to … Read more Elsevier publishes fake journal promoting Merck drugs
MIT has posted podcasts from the five plenary sessions at Media in Transition 6, at the Comparative Media Studies program’s podcast page. The plenary sessions were on “Archives and History,” “New Media, Civic Media,” “Institutional Perspectives on Storage,” “The Future of Publishing,” and “Summary Perspectives.” I think these plenary sessions were the best part of … Read more Media in Transition 6 – Podcasts
New from Litwin Books Forty Years in the Struggle: The Memoirs of a Jewish Anarchist Author: Chaim Leib Weinberg Translator: Naomi Cohen Editor: Robert Helms Price: $28.00 Published: May 2009 ISBN: 978-0-9802004-3-0 Printed on acid-free paper This story, told by one colorful figure among the anarchists of Philadelphia, does not tell the entire story of … Read more Forty Years in the Struggle: The Memoirs of a Jewish Anarchist