An information professional

This is just for fun -- a posting for all those in the information professions! It's from Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.



I've been busy on the Archives Track this semester; perhaps I should continue to blog about my classes. But admittedly, it can be difficult to motivate myself even to do the work that is required. I'm in the midst of moving from Pennsylvania to New Mexico, so I hope that once I'm settled in Albuquerque I'll have more time to reflect and blog about the MLIS program.

Archiving an archivist

Just browsing around the 'net, I found this video interview of my good friend's father, Dr. Ed Bridges, the director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Growing up, I always enjoyed hearing Dr. Bridges talk about his work. He was interviewed last year for Alabama Public Television, and I especially enjoyed hearing his insights about his career: the ways documents and objects tell stories, the ways in which selective retention of items may shape a view of history, and how his archives conceal countless hidden treasures of significant historical value.

http://www.aptv.org/VideoRoom/viewprogram.asp?FileID=871

The more I learn about archives, the more intrigued I become by this particular career option.

Another link -- this one relating to archives

I found this article last week for my archives class, and it's interesting enough that I'll include a link to it here, as well.

Kafka's Papers Snarled in Bidding War, Cat Litter, Israeli Pride

As I said in my discussion posting for the class, although it's heartbreaking to think of Kafka's unseen works moldering away in a damp flat, the fact that he wanted all of his writings to be burned after his death just makes me glad that anything at all remains of his works.
Image via Wikipedia

Open source textbooks?

Just posting a quick link tonight:

Open Source Textbooks Challenge a Paradigm

I'll be curious to see where this leads.

The Big "So What"

An article in Salon.com today reviews a book called Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet, whose authors examine the rise and spread of information production, beginning at the dawn of Western civilization and continuing through the twenty-first century. But -- ask the authors -- so what? Is the so-called Information Age really so different from any that came before?

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/08/28/knowledge/


It sounds like a text that would find itself right at home among some of the texts we were assigned to read in LIS2000, such as Wright's Glut and Barabasi's Linked. I've been enjoying the texts that take a long view of history and knowledge, even when such books don't necessarily tell me what information or knowledge is.

Yes, this would be a more enlightening blog post if I had actually read the new book of which the article speaks, but I found the review itself interesting in its summarization of various cultures' prioritizing of speech over writing or vice-versa -- and related questions about how and where internet discourse fits in to such equations.

I'll try to keep blogging every now and then as the new semester begins!

Anyone still reading this?

Image via Wikipedia Yeah, OK, so I've let the blog slide since class ended. But why not keep it running? For the last several days I've been on a beach vacation with my family, and our recent nostalgic YouTubing has inspired me to post this video that rocked my world and blew my mind when I was seven years old. Then when I met my future husband thirteen years later, we totally bonded over how much this short film rocked our worlds and blew our minds when we were seven years old.

No, it doesn't have particularly much to do with library school or related issues, but who among us wouldn't benefit from a broader perspective? (Way broader...) I therefore invite you to enjoy Al Jarnow's "Cosmic Clock" from 3-2-1 Contact (still one of my favorite TV shows ever). Hooray for Children's Television Workshop!

My final assignment!

On this last humid day of July, I'm happy to bring my LIS2600 work to a close and amalgamate the results into a portfolio. Here it is, ladies and gentlemen:

http://www.pitt.edu/~ell34/portfolio_livingston.html


And just in case anyone would like to see my index page (in a pretentious font that seems to say, "Braised Portobello Caps, 27-"):

http://www.pitt.edu/~ell34/

That's all for now; good night and good luck!