Monthly Archives: August 2008

The Land of Stinkin’

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I’ve already stated my choice for president in this U.S. election: John McCain.  I still doubt that he’ll win, and there are things about him that I question, but I hope he will win.  His chances rose immeasurably, in my view, when he surprised a lot of people by choosing Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin, as his running mate.  Honestly, before this I found it hard to be excited about the campaign.  Now, I am very excited.  Of course, this decision is not without significant risks and downsides.  But I can’t help admire the fact that McCain keeps surprising people and keeps on going when many pundits have written him off several times.  Whether you are a diehard Democrat or a rabid Republican, one thing you can agree on this year:  the election just got a whole lot more interesting.

I’ve enjoyed reading various reactions to this news over the past 24 hours. Here is one of my favorite quotes, taken from a comment made on an editorial by the Chicago Tribune:

“I find it amazing that Palin’s resume is called thin and yet the same term isn’t used to explain Barack Obama’s. Palin is a genuine, straight talking governor who isn’t a mystery to her constituents on where she stands on policy, without Clintonian double-talk that Obama has taken to new levels. Unlike Obama, she can back up her credentials as a reformer. When confronting the corrupt good old boy network in Alaska she lays claim as a dragonslayer.

Barack Obama? He danced with the dragons of the Chicago-Cook-Illinois Combine all along the way. Ever hear of Tony Rezko, Mayor Daley, the Strogers, and so forth? Where was the battle that Barack fought in the name of reform and clean government? All you see is indictments, convictions, campaign contributions, and a lot of sweet talk that dismisses the rampant corruption that pervades in the Land of Stinkin’.”

VuFind @ CARLI

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Whoohoo! I was quite excited to stumble upon the news that the CARLI consortium here in Illinois is trying out the VuFind software as a new front end for its Ex Libris Voyager catalog. I had no idea they were doing this; I knew (thanks to one of my students) that they were also trialling WorldCat Local, but I didn’t realize they were also looking at VuFind.

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Some initial thoughts: I am especially pleased that a major consortium with some really big library collections is looking closely at an open source solution. I like what I see so far in some of the searches that I’ve done in the system: the ability to tag, cite, utilize the Google Book Search API, add to favorites, etc. OpenURL linking is built in as well.

A PhD that’s out of reach

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I’ve noted here several times in the past that I have long wanted to pursue a PhD in librarianship. I’ve pretty much given up that possibility though, for a number of reasons. I feel like I’m too old, and I question my own ability to meet the challenge. More importantly I have a wife and family who come first and whom I could not support effectively if I were a full time student.

Occasionally I see announcements of the availability of stipends or grants that would give full tuition reimbursement for chosen candidates for this or that PhD program. This latest one from University of Texas at Austin and Drexel makes me a bit wistful.

It makes me a bit wistful because there is a basic requirement that chosen candidates be in residence at either school. That’s impossible for me to consider. I fully understand the desirability and the benefits of that requirement. But I can’t help wondering when or if or where there is a well regarded school that will offer a PhD in LIS that I can pursue almost entirely online. Surely this isn’t out of the question in terms of possibility?

If anyone who has any involvement in such a program should some day happen, miraculously, to read this post, consider this a plea. I think there are lots of people like me out there who can’t or are not able to pull up stakes and move and complete a PhD program in residence.

Technology and young children

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I am a contributor to another blog, for the Special Library Association’s Information Technology Division. This morning I became aware of a really embarrassing situation: I found out that two personal posts were published to the SLA IT Division’s blog from my contributor account. They were posted accidentally by my two littlest children while they were playing with my Blackberry last night. (I have since removed both posts and substituted an apology/explanation.)

Typepad (the service that powers the SLA IT Division blog) has a really nice free client that I had only recently loaded onto my Blackberry. One of its features is integration with the camera such that whenever a photo is taken, Typepad automatically asks if I want to post it to my Typepad blog. My little ones happily pressed buttons and you now know the result…

This experience, while embarrassing, got me to thinking about how we try to evangelize about technology and its uses but at the same time, we need to be aware that it can be abused when in the wrong hands :-)