Benny's World

Monday, April 10, 2006

Kicked A** and Took Names Today

Seldom do I post about my work. Part of it is that lately we had a crisis due to a position getting cut in my unit, and the management group didn't explain or justify their reason why very well. When there is unclear communication, it causes more ambiguity and dissatisfaction among workers, but unfortunately, the management where I work sometimes doesn't read the latest thinking among management gurus.

As my group continues to work through this crisis..and while some of it has passed, there are banner days. Today I had one of them.

I taught a group of students who are practicing to become among us when they graduate. The topic was on print sources for business. In 50 minutes, I took them on a journey starting with our reserves collection and romped through our reference materials. Their eyes got large several times when I pointed out special reports, directories, and historical data in terms of black market currencies, trade statistics, and government finances. I pointed out several books that help business researchers understand buying patterns of families and concentrations of different immigrant groups in our country--and where to find them.

It was very satisifying for me, to say the least. While I'm considered one of the database queens where I work, I still love the print.

Anyway, that was part of my day. The other was preparing a draft for a presentation I am giving at a conference next week--on my favorite topic: blogs!

2 Comments:

  • Benny,
    that is an interesting question. What is the status of blogs or internet material in general with libraries?

    Is it considered material that deserves to be archived?

    If so, what are the criteria for determining which of it is worth preserving, indexing, etc.?

    Now that publication itself is so much more fluid, it seems the whole notion of what a "library" is needs to shift from a physical notion to a conceptual one.

    By Blogger Chancelucky, at 9:17 AM  

  • Chancelucky,
    A lot of people share your thinking, but all I know is that at 2:30 nearly ever day, our library buzzin' with people. They are like blogs; still socializing, sharing information. I think there will always be a need for some physical space, but in my specialization of business libraries, we need a "neighborhood"rather a library full of books and journals.

    Blogs and other objects born digital are being preserved in the academic arena; some of it in intranets in companies too. How do we decide? Depends. Sometimes it needs more mark-up than first created. We have harvesters to retrieve these materials, but they are very expensive to develop and keep operating on the nonprofit front.

    By Blogger benny06, at 12:18 PM  

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