Comments on: Didn’t I just…?

By: The battle lines for books: non-fiction/fiction, academic/public | Slow Reading

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:38:57 +0000

[...] the changes a cause for concern? If all non-fiction were to go digital, nostalgic though I am, I wouldn’t holler. When it [...]

By: The OPLIN 4cast » Blog Archive » OPLIN 4cast #49

The OPLIN 4cast » Blog Archive » OPLIN 4cast #49 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:00:49 +0000

[...] Didn’t I just…? (blyberg.net) [...]

By: ห้องสมุด vs. ร้านขายหนังสือ « iTeau’s Dirt

ห้องสมุด vs. ร้านขายหนังสือ « iTeau’s Dirt — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:14:42 +0000

[...] blyberg.net; [...]

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:30:05 +0000

No, the experience of the library will not (and already is not) be the same for future generations. I’d like to think that isn’t such a bad thing. Actually, I’ve come to expect that my experiences of just about everything are going to be vastly different from those my son has during his lifetime. But that’s ok.. I don’t want his life experiences to be a clone of mine any more than I want to live life the way my parents and grandparents did.

As for the whole lack of serendipity thing, I guess I see it two ways. One is that I see online elements like tag clouds, related materials, and suggested titles, other new features that offer links to things other than what we searched for as filling that purpose. Maybe I search for one thing, but through these features I can stumble on other stuff just like when browsing in the stacks.

But the other thing I think of is that with the amount of information our little minds have to process nowadays, it’s true that I don’t always have room in my brain for anything else. I want what I searched for the end. So it’s nice that the extra added features I see as adding serendipity back in are extras that I can choose to use or not, depending on my own tastes, habits, and current needs.

By: holly

holly — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:23:50 +0000

You’re right on with your comment about libraries. I grew up with book loving parents and we went frequently to the libraries. I am glad to say that my son, is also a book geek. We went into a huge used bookstore (King Books in Detroit, MI) and he said to me when we walked in “I just love the smell of books.” You’ll never get that experience on the ‘net! I do the same thing every time I walk into the library, take a big breath in, and enjoy the smell of books. There’s nothing like it!

By: Barb Dinan

Barb Dinan — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:26:32 +0000

I find that the social commentary at WSJ usually measures a mile wide by one inch deep, in this editorial was conformed to type. Beyond the unsubstantiated assertions and generalizations, the author seemed to imply that kids are BUYING BOOKS and that’s BAD. If kids today spend their money on books, I think that’s wonderful. It is also a little unexpected to find the WSJ, of all publications, editorializing against materialism.

Speaking as a librarian who spends a lot of money in bookstores, I can tell you that the two are not mutually exclusive. Many people come to the library with a list of books that they browsed in the store and want to borrow. It also works the other way. Many a parent purchases books that their children found in the library, because children want to read their favorite books over and over …

Libraries face many challenges, but people buying books is not one of them. In fact, I read somewhere that book stores and libraries have a mutually beneficial relationship. Maybe I read it in WSJ ….

By: The battle lines for books: non-fiction/fiction, academic/public « John Miedema

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:15:02 +0000

[...] battle lines for books appears to non-fiction/fiction, academic/public. Is this a cause for concern? If all non-fiction were to go digital, nostalgic though I am, I wouldn’t holler. When it [...]

By: Twitter-pated « informationatrix

Twitter-pated « informationatrix — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:36:07 +0000

[...] John Blyberg of blyberg.net and Steven Cohen of librarystuff.net have already “locked horns” on the issue, both [...]

By: Ivan Chew

Ivan Chew — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:50:24 +0000

>>>
And that will be a radically different set of virtues than the ones our parents enjoyed.
>>>
Well said. Couldn’t agree with you more. I’m tempted to drop the word “radical” but figured that it’s radical change that’s needed to stay relevant, as these youths become the adults of tomorrow (but not necessarily disruptive change though).

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:26:43 +0000

>”But many tech-savvy kids never experience the library as a place for serendipitous discovery.”

I’d almost reverse this. The problem isn’t that kids no longer want serendipity–that they’re now task focused–but that the web is a *better* place for serendipitous discovery. Sure, you can zero in on something you want, but everything is linked horizontally in a million ways.

My goal, and I suspect you share in it with SOPAC, is to bring some of the magic of serendipitous discovery to the OPAC. Instead of an ugly machine for finding one exact book, I want the OPAC to parktake of the rich, linked, loopy, serendipitous madness that is the web.

The library *might* let you browse a list of biographies assembled together by one criterion. LibraryThing let’s you shift and pivot—famous black people? famous ball players? books about the dodgers? sports history? and spiraling outward–people interested in these topics, authors who write about them, reviews, ratings, related Wikipedia entries, and out to the wild wild web.

By: john

john — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:23:14 +0000

He reads it, though both my parents have admitted to not knowing what I’m talking about half the time and they certainly don’t know what I “do”..

By: David Lee King

David Lee King — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:07:52 +0000

Wait - your DAD reads your blog??? My dad, wonderful dad that he is, doesn’t know what a blog is, and probably has no earthly idea what I even do (though I’ve explained it more than once).

That’s cool!