Last week, while I was pondering what field I was standing in, I realized that many of the blogs I subscribe to were not necessarily helping me think about that question. So I turned to my friend Mark, who I rely on to filter all things biblioblogosphere. Yes, that’s right, I’m the “friend” in question in this post.

First a few disclaimers- I sometimes get these odd feelings in my gut that suggests that something is missing, but I’m never quite sure it’s because they are really missing, or I’m just not looking in the right place, or asking the right questions. Generally I send out feelers to folks like Mark to see whether it is just lunch upsetting my stomach, or a legitimate hunch.

Secondly, I have to admit to throttling the bandwidth I’ve given to LIS blogs…too many blogs, too little time. Especially as the Museoblogosphere (ugh! that’s even worse than biblioblogospehere) has expanded. I’ve been splitting my time between LIS blogs, museum blogs, and digital humanities blogs. But from the responses to Mark’s post, it does seem that there is a dearth of LIS educator blogs.

Initially I was thinking about people who’s main employment was in a graduate program, but I’ll take Mark and other people’s posts that this definition needs to be expanded. We could rehash the theory vs. practice arguments, but I don’t think that will really get us anywhere fast. In fact I think this isn’t necessarily about the person and what their title is, but rather what the blog is about — namely the practice of being an educator and a researcher. I would extend that to include people who don’t claim to be “LIS,” but are in related disciplines that touch on issues we’re concerned about. (i.e. computer science, communications, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, history of technology, etc., etc.). In the same vein, I’m also on a hunt for blogs in archival science, museum studies and museum informatics (to complete the LAM blog trifecta).

Here are some of the criteria that I am thinking about:

• informs the development of curriculum for library and information science
• discusses or informs what is expected from graduates of LIS programs
• discusses research methods and relevant literature
• how to be a better researcher, writer, presenter (blogger!)
• discusses high-level trends and research questions
• pulls in and comments on relevant research from “outside” the field
• offers new forms of scholarly communication and collaboration

I’m sure I’m missing some criteria, but will keep thinking about this as I look at the examples that have been posted in response to Mark’s post. The discussions about where Dorothea’s blog sits in all of this are interesting. One of the things that I find compelling about CavLec is that is that it’s not only about charming DSpace into behaving itself, but Dorothea’s reflections on LIS graduate education (and grad school in general – I had more than a few hard thinks about what I’m doing after reading “A Tale of Graduate School Burnout”). I’m sure I won’t be the first one to say we need more of what CavLec has to offer.

So why are LIS educator blogs few and far between? First, I haven’t heard of anyone who’s blog counted towards tenure and promotion. And when push comes to shove, you’re going to spend your time writing more articles rather than blogging. Academia runs on a great deal of whuffie and right now, blogs don’t contribute the way publications do (I’d be happy to be disabused of this notion). I’ve had conversations with faculty about finding the balance between talking about my research and the dangers of getting scooped by someone else who’s able to move faster than I can on a problem. These all seem like issues that are rooted in traditional practices of scholarly communication that are shifting and changing in unpredictable ways right now. This is also one of the reasons I’m watching several digital humanities blogs; to see how they are negotiating the channels and shoals of contemporary scholarship. Having some good models within LIS would be a welcome addition.

At the ASIS&T conference I sat in on the Bulletin editorial committee meeting (as ASIS&T student representative), where we discussed the recent move to publish the Bulletin online. I asked whether anyone had considered starting an ASIS&T blog, and while the idea has been floated, nothing seems to have happened on that front yet. Having helped start one collaborative blog, I wonder if something similar under the ASIS&T flag, would prime the pump for more LIS educators to take the plunge.

Of course, at the root of all of this, is me asking questions about what kind of educator and researcher I want to be and what role I want this blog to play in that development.

Lydonia (W.A. Lydon, Chicago) (LOC)

Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is cooperating with Flickr to engage the public in sharing and tagging images from LOC’s collections through a new feature called The Commons.

While I tag my own stuff, haven’t participated much in social tagging efforts for other people’s stuff. Well…unless you count tagging websites in del.icio.us, or locations in Second Life using Gridmarker.

I spent a little time adding tags to the Steve project but haven’t felt very compelled to spend alot of time there. But then, my interests and expertise is not in art. While I enjoy going to an art museum, I don’t feel very compelled to spend time tagging art images. It’s just not my thing.

I though Making of Modern Michigan’s use of Wikimedia was particularly novel, but I don’t know much about Michigan to contribute.

I do however know far more than I ever expected to about Delaware, where I lived and worked for about 5 years. Without dragging the box of research notes out of the closet, let’s see what we can find……

From the New York TImes historical archive we learn that in fact the Lydonia was built in Wilmington, DE for W.A. Lydon of Chicago. At the time, Lydon was Commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club. According to the Times article, she was the Queen of the Lake Michigan Fleet. In 1917 Lydon turned her over the U.S. Government to be used as an auxiliary vessel.

From a Men of Affairs digitized by the University of Illinois for the Open Content Alliance project we learn:

“W. A. LYDON

AS A contractor and a master of dredges Mr.
Lydon has won his fame. He understands
all the difficulties and dangers in scooping out the
bed of a river, widening a stream, creating a
harbor, overcoming a sand bank or blowing up a
reef. Of the Chicago river and the harbors of
Lake Michigan he is the expert master in keeping
them to navigable depths, safe for all kinds of
shipping. His firm is known over the entire Great
Lakes district as that of Lydon &, Drews. His
monster dredging apparatuses are visible where –
ever a channel is to be created. All of the
important work required by the United States
government to bring the Chicago river to its legal
navigable depth has been performed under the
direction of Mr. Lydon.”

With a little more digging, I’m pretty sure that Pusey & Jones’ records would show that Lydon’s company also purchased workboats, tugs and barges from them. Many of the P&J yachts were constructed for clients who also had contracted with them for other vessels.

Lydonia would be designated SP-700 by the U.S. Navy and sent on patrol duties off of Gibraltar where she assisted in the sinking of UB-70. She was eventually decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. (more information and photos of the Lydonia in service at the Naval Historical Center, and the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships.

Lydonia (Lydonia

According to this site, Lydonia was host to President Coolidge in April 1927.

Lydonia‘s specs:

• LOA: 214 feet
• LWL: 172 feet
• Beam: 26 feet
• Draught: 12 feet
• Designer: William Gardner
• Builder: Pusey & Jones Shipyard, Wilmington, DE

Well, folks, how’s that for an example of what sharing via Flickr and opening your collections up to social networking can do for ya?

via Joystick101

for all of you who are bored at the reference desk, or the help desk.

The Carnegie Mellon library system has released (in beta) two games meant to get at using the library system. The first game, Within Range, is not the most interesting but it asks students to re-shelve books based on LoC subjects and the Dewey Decimal System. Useful for helping them find books in the brick and mortar library but not riveting gaming. The second game, I’ll Get It, is a much like Diner Dash (only in a library). You have to look up the patron’s topic and choose from 2 books or 2 internet sources what you will bring back to the patron based upon their research question. This one is a bit more interesting especially since it goes in waves and gets more harried as time passes.

How effective is this? Can we teach students how to use a virtual library and expect them to extrapolate that out to the real world? Or will they simply google the topic and go from there?

via TechPresident

I’m getting ready to do a little politically oriented…or maybe “aware” is a better term….blogging for 2008. I recently subscribed to the TechPresident blog and came across this recent post that I thought would be of interest to the librarians out there.

from orgnet.com
Network visualization shows patterns of political book purchases prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential primaries. Books are linked by Amazon’s “also bought” data — only top-sellers are shown. Two distinct clusters emerge from the data, with a few books bridging the divide, similar to 2004.

I’d like to know a little more about the methodology here, especially how the “top sellers” represented were selected. By my count the “blues” read more different titles (about 29) than the reds (about 23). Do the blues read more than the reds…or should I say “buy” more, who knows if these get read or not. And i presume that the buyers weren’t just buying political books, but buying other reading as well…wonder if you can get a sense of political orientation from whether you bought the Sunday’s at Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook or the Barbecue Bible. My reading list wouldn’t be a good example since I believe in the old maxim to “keep friends close but your enemies closer.”

Hmmmm….I wonder if you could do something similar using WorldCat holdings information….are America’s public libraries blue or red?

or a Guide to Museum Manners for Incorrigible Pirates and the Like.

ZOMG! I book that combines my love of museums AND pirates…watch out Storytelling Guild!!!

The Terrible Captain Jack Visits the Museum, or A Guide to Museum Manners for Incorrigible Pirates and the Like, is the museum’s first major children’s book. As the title suggests, it is a whimsical yet straightforward manual for children on how to behave when visiting a museum. Written and illustrated by the museum’s first director of education, Diane Matyas, young readers join Captain Jack on his first visit to a museum, where he is advised by the ship’s monkey Steve to “keep his bloomin’ fingers off the paintings and the walls” and reminded that “museum voices are quiet ones, but ask lots of questions.”