I’m spending some time working at our local public radio station this summer. In my quest to find out a little bit about online radio audiences I was looking at Current, the news source for public broadcasting and this was the lead story:

Read his lips? Not if that could get public TV fined, PBS decides

Cursing mouths must now be obscured in programs airing before 10 p.m. Pictured: a military officer whose words were bleeped and mouth pixilated in recent Frontline documentary on the Iraqi insurgency.

The article suggests this is more about FCC actions than bizarreness on PBS’ part. But really, this seems a little over the top.  I think any kids who are watching a Frontline documentary should be able to handle a few mouthed explatives.  Where’s my iMovie? I can think of a few mouths that I’d like to pixelate.

Now consider that not everyone has the resources to save every bit of raw footage or the original proprietary formats that a program is edited in.  Or that those formats will probably break a few versions down the road.   Even if the final program with bleeps and pixelation makes it, this will be an interesting indicator of current culture worthy of study by some future media studies student.

Last weekend I went to see Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Even though I felt well informed going in, the presentation here was sobering. Now, I feel that I’ve been a pretty responsible citizen when it comes to the issue of climate change – I don’t drive my low emission vehicle very much, I choose to live in places where I can rely on public transportation, I walk alot, I try to make the older homes I live in at least somehwat efficient, I support candidates that are environmentally aware. But An Inconvenient Truth left me wondering “What is my role is as a cultural heritage professional?” We’ve already seen some of the effects of climate change on the historical record – from flooding in Europe, the effects of massive hurricanes like Katrina, and even the recent flooding in the Northeast that even the National Archives couldn’t escape.

Sadly I couldn’t find much from U.S. organizations (if you know of something, please add a comment), however the European heritage community is at least aware that climate change will have an impact on the cultural heritage environment in the decades ahead. In addition to the reports listed below, they have sponsored UNESCO meetings discussing the impact of climate change on world heritage sites.

• Noah’S Ark Project: Global Climate Change Impact on Built Heritage and Cultural Landscapes
• National Trust & Climate Change (UK)
• Climate Change and the Historic Environment (UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage – PDF)
• Climate Change and the Historic Environment (English Heritage – PDF)

If the predictions are correct, climate change will be a growing issue for historic and cultural sites. It suggests the need for disaster plans that go beyond immediate and localized collections. Many of the places I’ve worked had limited plans in place for technology disaster planning. Katrina demonstrated that even off-site backups stored within a region may not be enough. In order to preserve what we’ve invested in digitization projects cultural heritage institutions need to think as a community how we can protect those investments. A shared network, along the lines of the LOCKSS project, could be one solution.

It would also be nice to see a coalition of U.S. cultural organizations join together to advocate for adoption of the Kyoto treaties and encourage institutions to adopt practices that reduce their impact on global climate change. Local institutions also need to be aware of thier risks that may surpass recent historical trends and prepare to address them effectively.

Welcome to my new blog, the successor to libraryLand where I had been writing from the perspective of an MLIS student. Now that I’m upgrading to the PhD program, I decided it was time to upgrade to a new blog as well. I learned about WordPress from configuring the Museumatic.net blog earlier this year and decided that it would provide a little more freedom than Blogger did. Plus, I’m now on my own hosted service where I can play with some mashups or other script goodies. All of the previous posts from libraryLand have been migrated to Inherent Vice for your reading pleasure and convenience (and for the benefit of newcomers).

What’s with the new name?libraryLand was my first attempt at blogging and I’ve felt a little confined by the name since I started it. While I am in Library school, my research interests really span all of the cultural heritage/memory institution sector. I decided something that wasn’t so library-centric would be better suited for what I plan to discuss here. “libraryLand” always seemed a little out of place in museum and cultural heritage blogrolls.

The SAA Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology defines inherent vice as:

The tendency of material to deteriorate due to the essential instability of the components or interaction among components.

Besides being one of my all time favorite LAM terms, I think it appropriately describes many of the challenges we face in digital cultural heritage. Digital materials are rife with inherent vice, from file formats to large complex systems. These vices will continue to challenge us as we provide access to our current collections and as our collections include increasing amounts of born-digital materials. We continue to struggle with issues of interoprability, especially in attempting to build shared metadata repositories and services. As twenty-first professionals, digital materials have introduced instability to our traditional roles and responsibilities that we will be sorting out over the next few decades. As a PhD student I will be looking at these issues as a researcher and as someone who will be educating future generations of professionals.

Is it a little snarky? Maybe. But those of you who know me might recognize it as my usual dry wit. As I’ve dipped my toes into the blogosphere I’ve stuggled with the divide between public/professional and private. I’ve enjoyed reading blogs from other colleagues that include a glimpse of who they are. I hope to inject a little more personality into this new manifestation by including a few more mundane and speculative discussions. I’d also like to hear more from my readers – really I don’t bite – feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions for what you’d like to see more of here.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy!