doomed books.

Well for one there is the domesday book, with its accurate survey of the landscape of England. Bot what of the doomed day of books? I alluded to this in a previous post, but I've really been thinking about it in light of the way things are in the current consumer climate 0f 2011.

A) you can't peg all the misfortunes of bookstores solely on ebooks. They have been around quite awhile now, but its a fallacy to believe that it only now has wrought the end of stores such as Boarders. Better ereader technology, combined with lucrative tie-ins to online bookstores (Amazon) have made a far greater impact. This is what has nailed it for me, the proprietary dealing of their books to their own device. If you wanted a book, you could go anywhere, but if you want to buy a new ebook for your kindle, where will you go? This has led ebooks to be the biggest seller on Amazon, not to mention that it's cheaper than buying in hard copy.

Another factor I see is the diversifying of large bookstores stock options at the point consumer choices were being siphoned away by online dealers. Everything you can buy at a boarders you could pretty much buy online, right down to magazine subscription vendors like isubscribe.

All in all this is only bringing books in line with other commodities via online shopping. If I wanted to I could live my whole life in front of a computer. And why, because its easy. It also means less time actually reading books. Most of the hardcore readers I know are not of the X or Y gens and are the older patrons of the library, who have no interest in an ebook or its reader. So who is? I see alot of commuters reading on portable devices, and for me, this is also the same time only get a chance to read. There is so much demand for our cash and attention these days its hard to find the time to fit in a book. Hell, I've even abandoned video games, a sad time indeed.

So basically, the way in which society consumes knowledge is changing, just as the way books are written, music is played, art is created, etc. maybe books will come with a free ebook download (like new vinyl is nowadays)as an added incentive, or they become limited edition print runs. Who knows. but if the big sellers in the market can fall, what about all the little independent stores? In the end, if music stores can continue to exist, than bookstores can as well. Unless the whole world forsakes materialism for the avdancement of society ala Star Trek. Then I'm ok with it.

Checking out Checks on Checkouts

Well, it's been a god damn long break between diatribes. but its taken the recent move by Harpy Collins to get my ire all afire. and what is it? They have instituted a new restriction on ebook lending to just 26 checkouts, their equivalent of a digital shelf life. What in blazes? First Amazon with their own little propriety anti-library pro-money kindle, and now this. You could mention the whole Boarders fiasco, but gentle ereaders, your kobo will still be safe. This really gets to me.

A recent article in the Believer focused on the fact that ereaders are really trying to simulate the world of the book, where the technology has so much more to offer than replicating an experience of the printed word. Even Julio Cortezar stepped out of the linear world of words with his novel Hopscotch, so why haven't digital books deigned to offer more? Possible because writers are not exclusively focusing on this medium, and publishers don't know how to market it.

What they do know however is how to restrict libraries from promoting ebooks to a wider readership. Having reviewed ebooks and eAudiobooks for my library recently it is clear that publishers are really out to protect their content (and all the power to them, they are out to make a profit anyway). even reviews of ereaders leads to the Kindle being the most user friendly, but what about library friendly?

I've sat on the fence along time over the issue of proprietary driven ebooks, and still don't own an ipad or ipod for similar reasons: I'm not up for restrictions. Which of course brings me back to Harper Collins. if my ebooks are to be restricted to a device, and now my ebooks are to be restricted to a shelf life, it will really be a backwards step in advancing digital media. For now, I think I'll stick to reading books, blogs and Believer.

There can only be one...

Service point people! and also one highlander. which they really should have heeded when they decided to make some sequels. But I'm not talking about movies, I'm talking about Libraries.

So I have been rather lax with checking up on my RSS feeds of late, the new job is keeping me from having much time to formulate new stratagems for web interaction whilst I survey my new information landscape where I am positioned. But the first one I did read from Tame the Web was on the Reference Desk is Gone, something that had always bothered me. Previously I've worked in library's that have divided their reference services, and conquered them by having an all inclusive service point.

Almost every library I encounter has a different setup for this, and even in new purpose build ones they seem to be making this division concrete, but with marble to smooth over any such harsh facades. From my customer point of view I find it an unnecessary division, but once again, every library has its own contributing factors at play. Does a library have self checks? RFID? Roving reference? Split over multiple levels? Public/Academic/Specialist? Single institution/part of a network? All of these are influential, but can always be overcome with the right focus.

Probably one of the more notable things I've been able to observe in my years in the industry is the division between the so called professional and paraprofessional castes in the library world. When I first began my rise to library aspirations from the ashes of my historian/archaeologist dreams I was not aware of the segregation in the library ranks. Much like the lay person, I thought you worked in a library, you were a librarian (explaining this to people is always an interesting experience). It is not until you are inside the belly of the beast do that you understand your role, kind of like red and while blood cells working together, but with different functions. Sadly, this leaves little room for growth, and if you want to expand yourself in your role, you may come off with the body perceiving you as cancer. And it shouldn't be like that.

I've actually had this post sitting here for almost a year, but it has bothered me for at least three. Yes, you need the separation in the workplace, but in education as well? Having performed on both sides of this coined stage of discussion, I can say I've enjoyed what both aspects offer, but can see where the large overlap in skills used. And as these skills develop, will what motivates me be more important than any piece of paper reads in my career development?

And as reference enquires continue to decline, coupled with the increase in services offered, will mean education institutions will really have to look again at what it is to be working in the library industry.

Kinect for..what?

Ahh Microsoft, don't think I don't see you trying to get back into my life, and your library patron/marketing agent ploys won't fool me this time! Not even with a puppy sir! So I've changed jobs and now I'm writing by the sea, almost my 16 year old dream come true, but I'm not entirely writing fiction nor in Jamaica. But to the point: somebody asked me what kinect meant, the dictionary had no assistance, Kinetica was of no help, so onto the dark side, google. Turns out it is a revolutionary amazing never seen before motion detection anti sarcastic gaming device! much like the Wii however, all this motion detection of actual actions I should be actioning in real life seems to be taking it more away from playing games on a console to imitating the experience. Once again the world taunts me with its progress towards holodeck success. part of me is appalled at the notion that games are now asking you to mimic activities you could perform yourself; I can play pretend golf, throw a Frisbee, I'm sure I can even get into some hack n slash role play, but that one is better left to the games. Once again its all about the ease of access, but also personal preference. Music as another example: you can now never have to own physical music again or ever go and see a band live, hell you can even make music sans instruments. But, you can also live your life hunting down rare vinyl and attending warehouse shows for the over 30's. same love, but on a different wavelength. So in summation I am intrigued as to how far Microsoft will go with their new toy, but also worried about how people growing up with this technology will perceive their usage of it. But it all might just be me having gamer withdrawals at the expense of a social life.

Is private...rank?

Well, if you are in some from of army this may be in fact a true statement. Or perhaps you were a sometime PVP enthusiast in World of Warcraft some time ago and are quite proud of your obsolete rank. Or it may be the view of a certain CEO of facebook, and privacy just...smells.

but what kind of olfactory sensation are you on the receiving end of? The perfumed scents of the wide open Savannah of information that has been opened to you, or the brackish pungency of steel capped boots storming through your seemingly invincible invisible internal Internet walls of firewalls to expose your small time information sharing racket. so is it going to be hard times ahead?

Well, if you have a read of this little article you mind may be soothed by its information lozenge like qualities. If not, you may have some sort of allergic reaction to this one.

For me, I've always upheld the opinion that if I don't want information about me on the Internet, I won't post information I don't want out there. As for what others post about me, its up there with what others say about me. And I'm pretty happy with my stance on that. So how are you coping with change? For me its been a few weeks, and it really hasn't changed my Internet habits in the slightest, so I won't be in the habit of slighting it. However, it is always a good idea to asses what it is you are doing, how it is being sent and received, and how you feel about that. I wonder how this is affecting library pages...Anyway, I'm sure if Gene Roddenberry was alive he would agree that this is getting us closer to humanity forging forward, or putting me one step closer to seeing Star Trek come to life.

I'm on your Facebook, linking your internets

Ahh lolcats, the world is still a better when I place references to thee in my titles. So having upgraded my knowledge database of the Internet to a patchy 2.1, I decided to look at my mildly neglected bloglines. Sadly it was down for maintenance, so I thought I would peruse techcrunch which I've decided I will often do. When Bloglines is down anyway. That's where I came across/a cropper the latest news that facebook will acting like a gatekeeper/gateway to all things interesting on the web, see the article here.

So how does this affect you and me? Well if you are my friend Phil it means nothing to you, and you will no doubt be chastising me for wasting my time on facebook and not writing my humorous thoughts in my notepad for later telegrams to you. For the rest of my tech savvy interfriends, it means you can now delve even deeper into your 'im interested in your activities on the net, but I don't want to look like I'm interested in your activities on the net' habits. Make sense? partial credit?

Well, Since I have a strict moral code of not using facebook at work, and some sort of hazy rule about doing work at home (a holdover grudge from my uni days no doubt) I have yet to actually test what this will all mean to me. however tech nut Mr Scoble has sussed it all out for me.

But what does it all mean Mr Keith? it Mean to say in that in a Star Trek world, that if the web was like space, and the websites were like planets, facebook would be like the Borg. They would assimilate everything, and your (like)ness would be added to their own. I would write your own, but that avatar on the net, its theirs.

Humor aside, does it mean that facebook is evil? it certainly looks like it is trying to monopolise the way in which people will access the Internet. their nanoprobes will be everywhere. you can even chart your assimilation success! Do I want Facebook knowing everything I do so it can push products and services upon me? Well, do I want to tell my mum everything I do and everywhere I go so she can tell all her friends? Not really. I can see it being good in assisting me find things of interest, but bad in that my web activities are going to be monitored in the extreme. I will of course have to test this myself, but as usual, this Suburbanite is wary of big development moving in.

Darkness!!! Darkness is spreading!

Ahh, yet another humorous obscure reference completed. If Rick James was still with us today no doubt his keen senses would detect the spreading dark web of deceit that malware has wrought upon many an unsuspecting Internet user. So I ask, nay plead, when you are using the Internet adhere to this creed: what Would Rick James do?

Having been an Internet user for quite a while now, I have been able to mostly circumnavigate malicious malware. Sadly, even for such a tech savvy user, even I have succumbed to its dark clutches over the years. Much as I succumb to the distraction of my musical interests taking over at the mere mention of Rick James (truth be told I took a break mid post to search for recordings of the Rick James/Neil Young band The Mynah Birds...with success!).

Anyway, I've suffered trojans over the years, corrupted operating systems, and more viruses that a technical problem. And popups! they are like that annoying street spruiker that hits you up for something that you don't need, and without the proper defences against such intrusions (the line/popup blocker 'your right mate' is a doosy/doozy/doosie for these situations) you may be burdened by some physical and financial strains that you could really do without. That is until you reformat you life to rid yourself of such. Fitness First anyone?

Another I have encountered is friends being 'hacked' in MMORPGs in a way that is more debilitating that an avatar's death. This can go even even further into having your credit card account hacked. Apparently once upon a time my card was used to download a song off itunes. AS IF ITUNES! NAY! A good thing my bank knows of my hardcore hardcopy music collecting habits.

But onto phishing scams. Phishing scams are definitely one of the highlights of the low points of Internet life, with scams to tyrannise even the most trusting of individuals. It really is society gone wrong. They are often hard to spot, but giveaways can be misspelled email addresses, links to unofficial sites, and asking of personal account information. the library is often subject to these sorts of email scams, and personally I have received plenty of random emails from people. More that what I get from actual friends, which is a bit of a worry. I mean these scams seem to be more interested in my life than their human equivalents! Sadly there is always going to be greed in the world, and this is not only a case of being a faceless crime, but often an automated one.

So the latest patch of 2.1 is drawing to a close, and once again I have tried to equate how this new technology applies not only to my work life but also my social/personal life. I've also noted that I seem to add such technologies only slowly to my lifestyle, and with work they are also adopted extremely slowly, which is usually due to Council or Management misgivings on how it is best implemented. It can be frustrating at times but it is important to stick to ones guns on how such services are in the best interests of serving the public, with too much red tape preventing the ability to provide a meaning full service.

So does this mean this blog will end!? Well I actually think I will keep it going, keeping an eye on technology, and interesting ways it affects society. Plus I have grown fond of my own amusing ways I relate to the subject material. So if anyone has enjoyed reading this, congratulations!