Friday, December 30, 2011

Digital Library and Information Science Books Index

Library and Information Science Books - Digital Book Index

This section has been designed to help librarians search NetLibrary titles by Subject. By selecting


nnnnnna code, you will select those titles that BEGIN with that code. Selections include direct sub-categories.

FOR NON-LIBRARIANS: NetLibrary is a very sizable collection of titles available to University, Public,

and School Libraries by subscription. If there is a title that you want to read, we recommend that

you contact your local Public or University library and request information on how to access these

titles. Many libraries provide access through their local or state-wide Internet gateways.

All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC.

Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC.

Play-and-learn libraries in govt schools gain popularity

RANCHI: Playing and learning in the library is a new method of teaching which is gaining popularity in various government primary schools in the state capital.

To spread the innovative idea to other districts, a dissemination workshop was held on Tuesday by the Room to Read India Trust, which is setting up these libraries. The trust in 2008 had established 50 libraries as a pilot project in government primary schools in Mandar block in collaboration with the Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC).

"Their work of setting up libraries has created wonders for children. It has also helped in changing the mindset of parents who are now encouraging their children to read and take books from libraries," said D K Saksena, state project director of JEPC.

However, the library is not restricted to school students alone, other students from the locality can also borrow books. "Knowledge is not limited to schools. It should percolate down to the community. Thus schools should be used as knowledge and information dissemination centres," said Saksena.

Parents are very happy with the progress of their sons and daughters. "People usually think that the standard of government schools is not up to the mark. But when I saw my daughter keen on going to school, I realized the usefulness. She herself started reading after returning from school. This was not there before," said a mother, Ashmina Khatoon.

"From 585 schools we need to move this mission to the rest 40,000 schools. We need more teachers and trainers for this," said Saksena.

The state manager for Room to Read, Sharique Mashhadi, said, "About 125 libraries will be set up in Latehar. We are trying to build up a strong community to help this mission."

Library Services through Cloud Computing

Library services through Cloud Computing from Erik Mitchell on Vimeo.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The History of Human Library

The History of The Human Library
Once upon a time in Copenhagen, Denmark. There was a young and idealistic youth organisation called "Stop The Violence". This non-governmental youth movement was self initiatied by the five youngsters Dany Abergel, Asma Mouna, Christoffer Erichsen, Thomas Bertelsen and Ronni Abergel from Copenhagen after a mutual friend was stabbed in the nightlife (1993). The brutal attack on their friend, who luckily survived, made the five youngsters decide to try and do something about the problem. To raise awareness and use peer group education to mobilise danish youngsters against violence. In a few years the organisation had 30.000 members all over the country.

In 2000 Stop The Violence was encouraged by then festival director, Mr. Leif Skov, to organise acitivites for Roskilde Festival. Events that would put focus on anti-violence, encourage dialogue and build relations among the festival visitors. And the Human Library was born, as a challenge to the crowds of Northern Europes biggest summer festival.

The reasoning behind the methodology
One of the main concerns of the inventors, Tobias Rosenberg Jørgensen, Sune Bang, Asma Mouna, Dany Abergel, Philip Lipski Einstein, Christoffer Erichsen and Ronni Abergel, was what would happen if people would not get the point? Or if the audience just simply did not want to be challenged on their prejudices?. Well given that there was a total of 75 books available, the conclusion made was that with so many different people, put together in a rather small space for a long time, they are bound to start reading each other. From the moment they ask the other book what their title is. And that will be the opening question of all books on the first day. And so it was to be. Before the first reader could take it a book, the talks where going on intensively and the feeling of something special was in the air. The policeman sitting there speaking with the graffiti writer. The politician in discussions with the youth activist and the football fan in deep chat with the feminist. It was a win-win situation and has been ever since.

Free to the world
The services of the Human Library has always been free to its public. From the very first event, up to this day. The same goes for new organizers that want to start working with the methodology. An idea with a potential and purpose such as this must be free for all and that is the philosophy of the inventors. Soon after the first event, Peter Wootsch of the Sziget Festivals Civil Island, staged an event in Hungary and after that another was introduced in Norway. In 2003 Mrs. Antje Rothemund the director of the Council of Europe´s European Youth Centre in Budapest, made the methodology a part of the human rights education program. Since then the Council of Europe has been the biggest supporter of the development and promotion of Human Library programs. Today a majority is hosted within the public library sector. Others are located in educational institutions, festivals, books fairs and other relevant settings.

Crucial partners in the development
One of the creators, Ronni Abergel, realising the potential of the idea, decided after the first event, to begin to work to promote the idea to potential new organizers. Since then he has travelled to many countries to organize launch events and present the idea to interested organisations and public authorities. One of the first organizations to take ear to the idea, was the Council of Europe. Without the support and dedication of the Nordic Minister Council and the youth directorate of the Council of Europe. This idea might never have had the chance to reach a global audience. Through the past six years the respective organisations have been crucial partners in the development of the Human Library. From supporting the production of the manual to helping with funding for launch events in different countries. From the very beginning Mr. Peter Wootsch of the Sziget Festival, Mrs. Antje Rothemund from the Council of Europe and Mr. Joachim Clausen from the Nordic Minister Council, have been tremendous allies of the Human Library.

Cost efficient acitivity
Further to having good partners to realise the project. The Human Library has another advantage to organizers around the world. Its not very expensive and can be organized no matter how big or small your budget is. The biggest ressource needed to facilitate a Human Library is time and idle hands to do the tasks. And due to this great quality it has been possible to stage events in a wide range of countries and with very little funding. This feature has made it possible to present Living Libraries in Romania, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Italy, Holland, Slovenia, Belgium, Portugal and Australia - to mention a few.

An idea with global appeal
The inventors quickly realised the global appeal and potential and since then have worked to promote the methodology to potential organizers. The goal is to make sure the Human Library reaches it full potential and is applied into use as much as possible in communities around the world. One of the first books in the original Human Library at Roskilde Festival, was the policeman Erik Pontoppidan (posing in the photo) from Copenhagen Metropolitan Police Department. His experiences and much more interesting information, can be found in our "guide" to organizers. Located in our ressources for organizers section you can also find templates for evaluations, marketing material and all what you need to get started with your Human Library.

Beijing First Human Library

IANS ( Leave a comment )
Beijing, Dec 27 (IANS) Ever thought what if you could interact with the protagonist of an interesting book? Well, booklovers in Beijing have been offered such an opportunity by a 28-year-old woman who always wished to be a librarian.

Li Xingning’s childhood dream came true this Christmas, when she opened a “Human Library” where books were real people. It was Beijing’s first human library, with dozens of readers and six “living books” exchanging their life stories and ideas, China
Daily reported.

In a human library, the books are real people engaging readers in a direct dialogue. And, a living book is the person who has chosen to be a representative of a certain group.

“Here we get to know people who have interesting life stories to share, and also understand who they are and why they live in a particular way,” said Li.

Li, an architect by profession, hoped her library would serve as an interactive platform to promote mutual understanding among people.

The human library concept originated in Denmark in 2000, and the idea has since spread around the world to over 45 countries. In China, such libraries have sprouted in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Yu, one of the living books, has been living a vagabond’s life for nine months, travelling from southwest China’s Yunnan province to Beijing, with little money and a guitar.

“I just want to tell them that once outside our comfort zone, we may find the beauty of life that we’ve never imagined before.”

The library also has an online version, where people from outside Beijing can share their stories.

Li said the “living books” were chosen as they followed their dreams. Every day one human book will be available in the library. But readers aren’t allowed to ‘the living book’ out.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

First Mobile Library (MPLAD)

Shantaram Naik M.P. today handed over the keys of first mobile library to be allotted under Members Of Parliament Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) to N Shivdas of Goa Konkani Academy. The vehicle was built at the cost of Rs 14 lakhs.



In his brief speech made at a simple ceremony held at Betoda ,Ponda, Naik said that although MPLAD rules provided for giving of books to the beneficiaries, there was no provision for mobile libraries in the MPLAD guidelines. When Naik brought this fact to the notice of Shri M.S. Gill, the then Miinister who looked after the Department of MPLAD, he immediately ordered amendment of MPLAD guidelines.. as Gill himself liked the concept of a mbile library.

Naik said that many MPs will eventually take benefit of change in the rules but the mobile library allotted to Goa Konkani Academi is the first one in India to be allotted under MPLAD . He said although it is said that the reading habits of the people have declined yet, people read literature published through newspapers and magazines besides the daily news , although, they may not be reading novels and other heavy

literary works, as before. Naik said that a new generation resorting to e-reading is going to come up very soon. President of Goa Konkani Academy N Shivdas while giving his welcome address thanked Mr Naik for making extraordinary efforts in getting the mobile library allotted to the Academy Secretary of the Academy Gurudas Pilgaonkar, Addhoot Kamat, Hanumant Chpdekar, Ajay Buva, Uday Gudekar and Lotlikar and Edward Monteiro of Aero Coach Factory were present on the occassion. Executive Member of the Academy proposed a vote of thanks.

The History of Library

THE COLLECTION OF written knowledge in some sort of repository is a practice as old as civilization itself. About 30,000 clay tablets found in ancient Mesopotamia date back more than 5,000 years. Archaelogists have uncovered papyrus scrolls from 1300-1200bc in the ancient Egyptian cities of Amarna and Thebes and thousands of clay tablets in the palace of King Sennacherib, Assyrian ruler from 704-681bc, at Nineveh, his capital city. More evidence turned up with the discovery of the personal collection of Sennacherib's grandson, King Ashurbanipal.

The name for the repository eventually became the library. Whether private or public, the library has been founded, built, destroyed and rebuilt. The library, often championed, has been a survivor throughout its long history and serves as a testament to the thirst for knowledge.

Literacy Builds Libraries

Early collections may have surfaced from the Near East, but the ancient Greeks propelled the idea through their heightened interest in literacy and intellectual life. Public and private libraries flourished through a well-established process: authors wrote on a variety of subjects, scriptoria or copy shops produced the books, and book dealers sold them. Copying books was an exacting business and one in high demand, because a book's "trustworthiness" translated into quality. An Athenian decree called for a repository of "trustworthy" copies. Though the public library first appeared by the fourth century bc, the private library was more prevalent. Aristotle, for instance, amassed a large private collection. Ancient geographer Strabo said Aristotle "was the first to have put together a collection of books and to have taught the kings in Egypt how to arrange a library."

Form Dictates Function
Throughout most of the library's history, the term "book" referred to works written on papyrus and some parchment rolls. Beginning in the second century, stacked and bound wooden boards recorded literature, science, and technical information. These tablets, called codex, derived from a centuries-old practice of using wooden writing tablets for notetaking. These new, durable codices gradually replaced the fragile rolls. However, rolls continued to be used for archival-type documents. Parchment eventually replaced the wooden boards.
The new codex form impacted book storage. Codices were stored flat on the shelf and covers protected their leaves. The libraries had to find ways to house both rolls and codices. New libraries emerging in the Middle Ages in churches, schools, and monasteries concerned themselves only with the codex form.



While most modern libraries spend more time and money on collections than ornamentation, some institutions, such as the Library of Congress, still aspire to ancient standards of architectural splendor.

The Great Library

That library, of course, was the Great Library of Alexandria, a public library open to those with the proper scholarly and literary qualifications, founded about 300bc. When Egypt's King Ptolemy I (305-282bc) asked, "How many scrolls do we have?", Aristotle's disciple Demetrius of Phalerum was on hand to answer with the latest count. After all, it was Demetrius who suggested setting up a universal library to hold copies of all the books in the world. Ptolemy and his successors wanted to understand the people under their rule and house Latin, Buddhist, Persian, Hebrew, and Egyptian works - translated into Greek.

The library's lofty goal was to collect a half-million scrolls and the Ptolemies took serious steps to accomplish it. Ptolemy I, for example, composed a letter to all the sovereigns and governors he knew, imploring them "not to hesitate to send him" works by authors of every kind.

The Ptolemies engaged in some unorthodox acquisition methods. Some stories relate that they confiscated any book not already in the library from passengers arriving in Alexandria. Another story tells how Ptolemy III (246-222bc) deceived Athenian authorities when they let him borrow original manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, using silver as collateral. Ptolemy kept the originals and sent the copies back, letting the authorities keep the silver. More traditional means included book purchases from the markets of Athens, Rhodes and other Mediterranean cities. Older copies were the favored acquisitions; the older the better, since they would be considered more trustworthy. At its height, the library held nearly 750,000 scrolls. There must have been duplicates since there weren't that many works.

Much of what is now considered to be literary scholarship began in the Alexandria Library. Funds from the royal treasury paid the chief librarian and his scholarly staff. Physically, books were not what we think of today, but rather scrolls, mostly made of papyrus, but sometimes of leather. They were kept in pigeonholes with titles written on wooden tags hung from their outer ends.

Fires and depredations during the Roman period gradually destroyed the Library. When Julius Caesar occupied Alexandria in 48bc, Cleopatra urged him to help himself to the books. Obliging, he shipped tens of thousands to Rome. Marc Antony was rumored to have given Cleopatra the 200,000-scroll collection of rival library Pergamum to replace Alexandria's losses.

Thanks to the Great Library, Alexandria assumed its position as the intellectual capital of the world and provided a model for other libraries to follow.


Rome's Vatican Library is one of the richest manuscript depositories in the world, with more than 65,000 manuscripts and more than 900,000 printed volumes. Most works are in either Latin or Greek.

When In Rome.
By the middle of the second century bc, Rome also boasted rich library resources. Initially comprised of some scattered private collections, holdings eventually expanded through the spoils of war. Even Aristotle's famed collection was among the bounty.

Julius Caesar dreamed of establishing a public library in Rome, but his vision was cut short by his assassination. After Caesar's death, Asinius Pollio acquired the requisite funds to make the dream a reality. The library was divided into two sections - one for Greek and one for Latin, serving as a model for subsequent Roman libraries. Great statues adorned the walls. Books, typically acquired through donations by authors and others, as well as through copying, were placed along the walls and readers consulted them in the middle of the room. This marked a distinct departure from the Greek model, where readers could only consult their books in an atrium away from the rest of the collection.

To serve as director of a library was a great honor. The role became a stepping stone for the ambitious government servant. Staffs consisted of slaves and freedmen, who were assigned to either the Greek or the Latin section. Pages fetched rolls from the systematically arranged and tagged bookcases and returned them. They usually transported the rolls in leather or wood buckets. Scribes made copies to be added to the collection and recopied damaged rolls, while keeping the catalog up to date. Libraries were typically open during standard business hours - sunrise to midday.

Rome had only three public libraries at the time of Augustus' death in 14ad: Pollio's, one in the Porticus of Octavia, and Augustus' on the Palatine Hill. When Trajan (98-117ad) dedicated his monumental column in 112-113, a library (sectioned into the traditional Greek and Latin chambers) was part of it. Much of the interior still exists today. The collection there grew to include some 20,000 volumes. Still, libraries remained the domain of the learned: teachers, scientists, scholars. Where were the masses to go? To the imperial baths, of course! At the baths, men and women, rich and poor could take a bath, meet with friends, play ball - and read a book. Libraries were added to the baths until the third century. A catalog of Rome's buildings from about 350ad enumerated 29 libraries in the city. But in 378, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus commented, "The libraries are closing forever, like tombs." As the Roman Empire fell, libraries seemed doomed to extinction.

Monasticism Transforms the Library

In the early 500s in Egypt, a man named Pachomius established a monastery and insisted on literacy among his monks. This was to have a long-lasting effect even after the Roman Empire split in two about 100 years later. Throughout the rest of the eastern empire, monastic communities emerged with small and mostly theological libraries.

Sparked by the spread of Christianity, the eastern half of the empire did much to foster the use of libraries. The capital city of Constantinople had three major libraries: the university library, the library for the royal family and civil service and a theological collection.

Even though libraries disappeared in the western empire due to invasion, lack of funds, and lack of interest, monasticism gave rise to an explosion of learning. In 529ad, Benedict established a monastery in Monte Cassino and established a rule by which the monks would live. Chapter 48 of this rule mandated: "Between Easter and the calends of October let them apply themselves to reading from the fourth hour until the sixth hour . . . From the calends of October to the beginning of Lent, let them apply themselves to reading until the second hour. During Lent, let them apply themselves to reading from morning until the end of the third hour, and in these days of Lent, let them receive a book apiece from the library and read it straight through. These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent."

The Benedictines created libraries and the scriptorium became sacred. It soon became customary for monasteries to lend to other monasteries, giving birth to the inter-library loan. Charlemagne, who owned a robust library in Aachen in the eighth century, ordered every school to have a scriptorium. The road was well paved to invite the Renaissance and a new age for libraries.

Renaissance of Learning

As Europe emerged from the depths of darkness into the light of learning, its people began to look to the Greek and Roman artistic and literary classics for inspiration. Many aristocrats of the period were dedicated to developing their private libraries. Cosimo de Medici of the famous Florentine family established his own collection, which formed the basis of the Laurentian Library. Also in Italy, the Vatican Library opened in the 1400s. Accompanying the growth of universities was the development of university libraries, which, in some cases, were founded on the basis of a personal donation. For example, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, donated his large collection to Oxford University in the early 1400s.

Gutenberg's movable type innovation in the 1400s revolutionized bookmaking. Printed books replaced handwritten manuscripts and were placed on open shelves.


The Radcliffe Camera is part of Oxford's Bodlean Library, the second largest library in Britain.

The Golden Age

Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, libraries surged in popularity. They grew as universities developed and as national, state-supported collections began to appear. Many of these became national libraries.

In Britain, Sir Thomas Bodley rebuilt Humphrey's library at Oxford in the late 1500s. It was renamed the Bodlean Library and today ranks as the second largest in the country. The largest, of course, is the British Library, founded in 1759 as part of the British Museum. The earliest public library in the UK was associated with London's Guild Hall in 1425. A second opened in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1580. Neither of these still exists, but one established in 1653 in Manchester, England does. Once Parliament passed the Public Library Act in 1850, libraries began to spread throughout the nation.

In France, the national library in Paris known as Bibliotheque Nationale de France began in 1367 as the Royal Library of Charles V. Another significant library, famous for its influence on library management, is the Mazarine Library, also in Paris. Cardinal Jules Mazarin, chief minister of France during Louis XIV's minority, founded it in 1643.

Building on its Roman heritage, Italy boasted several renowned libraries, including Laurentian Library in Florence, Vatican Library in Vatican City, Ambrosian Library in Milan and National Central Library in Florence, based on the collection of Antonio Magliabechi, a scholar of the 1600s and 1700s.

On the Iberian peninsula, King Philip V established the National Library of Spain, Madrid in 1711. Portugal's National Library in Lisbon appeared in 1796.

Three libraries form the national repository for Germany. The first, the German State Library in Berlin, was founded in 1661 by Friedrich Wilhelm. The second and third followed much later: the German Library in Leipzig, founded in 1912 and the German Library in Frankfurt, founded in 1946.

Catherine the Great founded the M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in St. Petersburg in the late 1700s. Russia's largest library, the Russian State Library in Moscow (formerly the Lenin State Library), was founded in 1862.


Beginning with John Harvard's 1638 donation of 260 volumes, the Harvard Library has grown to become the largest university library in the US, with more than 10,000,000 volumes.

The oldest library in America began with a 400-book donation by a Massachusetts clergyman, John Harvard, to a new university that eventually honored him by adopting his name. Another clergyman, Thomas Bray from England, established the first free lending libraries in the American Colonies in the late 1600s. Subscription libraries - where member dues paid for book purchases and borrowing privileges were free - debuted in the 1700s. In 1731, Ben Franklin and others founded the first such library, the Library Company of Philadelphia. The initial collection of the Library of Congress was in ashes after the British burned it during the War of 1812. The library bought Thomas Jefferson's vast collection in 1815 and used that as a foundation to rebuild.

It wasn't until waves of immigration and the philosophy of free public education for children that public libraries spread in the US. The first public library in the country opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped build more than 1,700 public libraries in the US between 1881 and 1919.

Libraries may have changed over the years - no longer do pages carry scrolls in wooden buckets - but the need for a repository of knowledge remains.

World's First Library

Ashurbanipal created the world's first libary in Assyria, this libary known as The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds (royal inscriptions, chronicles, mythological and religious texts, contracts, royal grants and decrees, royal letters, assorted administrative documents, and even what would be today called classified documents, reports from spies, ambassadors, etc.)
The collection written knowledge in some sort of repository is a practice as old as civilization itself. About 30,000 clay tablets found in ancient Mesopotamia date back more than 5,000 years. Archaelogists have uncovered papyrus scrolls from 1300-1200bc in the ancient Egyptian cities of Amarna and Thebes and thousands of clay tablets in the palace of King Sennacherib, Assyrian ruler from 704-681bc, at Nineveh, his capital city. More evidence turned up with the discovery of the personal collection of Sennacherib's grandson, King Ashurbanipal.
The Great Library of Alexandria, a public library open to those with the proper scholarly and literary qualifications, founded about 300bc. When Egypt's King Ptolemy I (305-282bc) asked, "How many scrolls do we have?", Aristotle's disciple Demetrius of Phalerum was on hand to answer with the latest count. After all, it was Demetrius who suggested setting up a universal library to hold copies of all the books in the world. Ptolemy and his successors wanted to understand the people under their rule and house Latin, Buddhist, Persian, Hebrew, and Egyptian works - translated into Greek.

The Hindu : Education : Q&A - Library and Information science

The Hindu : Education : Q&A - Library and Information science

Monday, December 26, 2011

NET 2012

Students appearing for the National Eligibility Test (NET), 2012 will be able to evaluate their performance immediately after appearing for the much-simplified test. The University Grants Commission (UGC), which conducts the test for around 2.5 lakh students twice a year, on Thursday decided that candidates can take carbon prints of their optical reader answer sheets with them.

This will enable students to know instantly how they have fared in the test, said UGC chairperson Ved Prakash.

In another decision, the UGC has decided that all the question papers for the test will be objective type.

Till now, two papers were objective and the third one subjective. This has led to delay in declaration of the results, sometimes forcing students to appear again.

Students had earlier expressed their unhappiness over evaluation in the subjective type paper.

Now, we will be able to declare the results much before next NET and to the satisfaction of students, Prakash said. The format will be applicable for the June 2012 exam and results will be announced by October before the next exam in December 2012.

Only those who clear the NET are eligible for junior research fellowship and for appointment in colleges and universities.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Fire in the Library

Magazine: Feature
Fire in the Library
Once, we stored our photos and other mementos in shoeboxes in the attic; now we keep them online. That puts our stuff at the mercy of companies that could decide to throw it away—unless Jason Scott and the Archive Team can get there first.

January/February 2012
By Matt Schwartz, with reporting by Eva Talmadge
Credit: Peter Arkle

E-mail Audio » Print Until a few months ago, Poetry­.com held more than 14 million user-submitted poems, some dating back to the mid-1990s. The site existed to make money: it had ads and at one point sold $60 anthologies to fledgling poets who wanted to see their work in print. But to the users, Poetry.com was much more than a business. It was a scrapbook, a chest for storing precious emotional keepsakes. And they assumed, perhaps naïvely, that it would always be there.

On April 14, the owner of the site abruptly announced that it had been sold and that every poem would be removed by May 4. "Dear Poets," read an e-mail sent to the roughly seven million users. "Please be sure to copy and paste your poems onto your computer and connect with any fellow poets offsite." Users who saw the notice rushed to notify their fellow poets, some of whom had not logged on in months. At 12:01 a.m. on the appointed date, all 14 million poems disappeared from public view. "Your poems are GONE," wrote ­1VICTOR, one of the site's users. "This tells me that their intentions is not on the soul of poetry! But the goal of growing in hits."

This trove of poems might have been forever lost had Jason Scott not arrived on the scene. Scott is the top-hat-wearing impresario of the Archive Team, a loosely organized band of digital raiders who leap aboard failing websites just as they are about to go under and salvage whatever they can. After word of what was about to happen at Poetry.com reached the Archive Team, 25 volunteer members of the group logged in to Internet Relay Chat to plan a rescue. "We were like, well, screw that!" Scott recalls. When sites host users' content only to later abruptly close shop, he says, "it's like going into the library business and deciding, 'This is not working for us anymore,' and burning down the library."

Scott and the Archive Team do not seek permission before undertaking one of their raids, though as a rule they only go after files that are publicly available, and Scott says most sites do not complain. They devised code that would copy the poems on Poetry.com and duplicate them in a network of donated server space in such far-flung places as London, Egypt, and Scott's own home in New York state. The members working to save the contents of Poetry.com, who are known by such handles as Teaspoon, DoubleJ, and Coderjoe, met up on one of the Archive Team's IRC channels and divided the poems into blocks, ranging in size from 100,000 to one million files. Most of the team began on the poems that might be considered the best—the ones with the most votes and awards—and worked backward from there.

Unlike other operations, this one encountered resistance. "Poetry.com was actively working against us at every turn," says Alex Buie, a high-school senior from Woodbridge, Virginia, who collaborates with Scott on the Archive Team. Buie says someone from Poetry.com e-mailed to complain that the Archive Team was scaring away the company that was about to buy the site. The site even blocked some of the Archive Team members' IP addresses, he adds. But the group persisted. By the time Poetry.com went dark, the team had saved roughly 20 percent of its poems. Today the site is a wasteland, filled with eerie, spam-filled forums and promises by the new owner to restore users' poetry at some point in the future.

CHEATING DEATH


People tend to believe that Web operators will keep their data safe in perpetuity. They entrust much more than poetry to unseen servers maintained by system administrators they've never met. Terabytes of confidential business documents, e-mail correspondence, and irreplaceable photos are uploaded as well, even though vast troves of user data have been lost to changes of ownership, abrupt shutdowns, attacks by hackers, and other discontinuities of service. Users of GeoCities, once the third-most-trafficked site on the Web, lost 38 million homemade pages when its owner, Yahoo, shuttered the site in 2009 rather than continue to bear the cost of hosting it. Among the dozens of other corpses catalogued by the Archive Team's "Deathwatch" are AOL Hometown, Flip.com (a scrapbook site for teenage girls that once had 300,000 members), and Friendster, of which the Archive Team managed to salvage 20 percent. "How many more times will we allow this?" an outraged Scott wrote on his blog after the AOL Hometown shutdown. He compared the lost user home pages to "a turkey drawn with a child's hand or a collection of snow globes collected from a life well-lived."

The personal quality of such data piques Scott: in his eyes, each page that the Archive Team salvages bears the singular mark of the person who made it. Rescued files from Petsburgh, the ­GeoCities subdomain devoted to pets, include a memorial to Woodro, a Shar-Pei who lost his battle with lung cancer on January 5, 1998. Woodro apparently loved Jimmy Buffett, so his owners paid tribute to his life with the song "Lovely Cruise." It is minutiae like these—evidence of everyday people expressing themselves in a particular place and time—that the Archive Team rescues by the thousands.

Salvaged
Mementos

Enlarge Samples

Scott's interest in technology, which began with a childhood love of electronics and early personal computers, bloomed in the 1980s and early '90s with the birth of digital bulletin board systems. In 1990 he and a friend created TinyTIM, a multiplayer virtual adventure that's now the longest-running game of its kind. Ten years later, Scott founded Textfiles.com, dedicated to preserving mid-1980s text files "and the world as it was then," bulletin board systems and all. In 2009, he founded the Archive Team, and last March he became an official employee of the Internet Archive, the San ­Francisco–based nonprofit behind the Wayback Machine, Open Library, and other projects to preserve online media. The Archive Team acts independently and has no formal affiliation with the Internet Archive, but data rescued by the Archive Team often ends up stored on the Internet Archive's servers. "I didn't want to bureaucratize the guy," says the Internet Archive's founder, Brewster Kahle, who hired Scott. "The question for us is how to have a relationship with a volunteer organization in a way that's not stifling from their perspective or frightening from ours." Scott's dual role allows the Internet Archive to take selective advantage of the Archive Team's more aggressive data-gathering techniques while maintaining an arm's-length relationship. Many differences between the two groups can be summed up by the icons that appear beside their URLs in Web browsers—for the Internet Archive, a classical temple, and for the Archive Team, an animated hand flipping visitors the bird.

During my reporting for this article, Scott refused to speak with me for reasons that he declined to explain, but when contacted by a second reporter who also said she was working for Technology Review, he discussed his life and work at length in e-mails and phone calls. Born Jason Scott Sadofsky, he is 41 years old and divorced. He lives with his brother's family about 70 miles north of New York City in Hopewell Junction, near the Hudson River. In the backyard is a storage container he calls the "Information Cube," which holds his vast collection of obsolete electronic equipment, computer magazines, and floppy discs, all part of his broader calling as an independent historian of the computer. In 2005, Scott created a five-hour documentary on early bulletin board services, and in 2009 he raised $26,000 in donations to support his rescues of digital history. His second documentary film, Get Lamp, about text-based computer games from the 1980s, debuted in 2010. Scott also evangelizes for data preservation on the tech-conference circuit, where his affinity for the old is sometimes reflected in his wardrobe. For example, he has been known to deliver a presentation in steampunk regalia—aviator-style goggles, a velvet jacket, and the top hat. Day to day, the widest outlet for his showmanship is the 1.5-million-follower @sockington Twitter feed written in the voice of his cat, Sockington, who makes such faux-naïf kitty quips as "#occupylitterbox" and "crunked on nip." "He is like a 19-year-old guy in a 40-year-old body," says Buie.

With his enthusiasm for archaic technologies, Scott is a throwback to the Internet's early days, when impassioned amateurs would banter on the WELL or hash out the new medium's technical specifications in request-for-comment papers, along with computer scientists from government and academia. The online community was smaller then, and more countercultural. Too primitive to attract major outside investment, the medium spent the 1980s guided by people like Jason Scott. Part of the appeal of volunteer projects like the Archive Team is that they offer a sort of time machine back to an online world that was less about money and more about fun.

DOODLES AND MEMORIES


Typically, Archive Team members extract data from failing sites using a crawling program like GNU Wget, which lets them quickly copy every publicly available file. The files are then sent to the Internet Archive for storage, or uploaded to one of the loose network of Archive Team servers scattered around the world. The hardest part, Scott explains, is knowing when a site is going down without warning. That happened to Muammar el-Qaddafi's website during the Libyan revolution that ended in his death. "It's an art, not a technical skill," Scott says. An Archive Team user who works under the handle "Alard" was able to copy Qaddafi's site, including videos and audio files of the late dictator. Now these materials are freely available to anyone.

Credit: Peter Arkle

Another recent rescue: Italy's Splinder.com, which is host to half a million blogs and announced its impending closure in a November blog post. Scott heard about Splinder through the Archive Team's grapevine of volunteer archivists, who will often send him e-mail and Twitter messages or add a page directly to the Archive Team's wiki. "People put out a bat signal," Scott says. By November 24, word of Splinder's troubles had reached Scott. More than a dozen members of the Archive Team "went in with guns blazing," he says, racing to copy as many of its 55 million pages as they could, causing the site to crash twice. Ultimately, Splinder's owners acquiesced to angry users and pushed the shutdown date back to January 31.

The next phase of a typical Archive Team mission is less exciting than ripping as much information as possible from a website before it disappears, but just as necessary for the salvaged data to be of any use. Archivists check the integrity of the downloaded data and then distribute it for storage. Larger collections may be released as torrents, which anyone can download over the peer-to-peer service BitTorrent, on sites like thepiratebay.org. The GeoCities archive was so big that at first Scott put out a call asking anyone with an available terabyte-sized hard drive to mail it to his home, where he would load the files and arrange for return postage. More than a dozen people from Scott's network volunteered to help safeguard the GeoCities cache until it was ready to be released as a torrent.

The Archive Team requires "a certain kind of person who's sort of reckless while still being methodical," says Duncan B. Smith, who works with the group under the handle "chronomex." "People live for the big efforts where people mobilize and download the fuck out of some website run by assholes. After the fire's out, though, you still have to stick around to clean the fire truck and put the gear away. You have to upload your data to the centralized dump to be collated. Then you have to talk over why your data seems slightly broken. That's the boring part."

Is it legal to copy stuff from websites without permission? U.S. courts haven't made a clear determination. Andy Sellars, a staff attorney at the Citizen Media Law Project, says he would argue that it counts as "fair use" under copyright law. However, he notes that the Archive Team's torrents don't offer a mechanism for copyright holders to demand that certain material be taken down, which could hurt its case in a court. "If you look at the letter of copyright law, it's pushing the envelope," says Jonathan Zittrain, codirector of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. But because the Internet Archive has been engaged in similar work for years, Zittrain says, "now the radical move would be for the courts to forbid it. Soon it will be another part of the furniture."

THE DATA HOARD


GeoCities is probably the best example supporting Scott's argument that apparently silly or worthless data can have unanticipated cultural value. Today the 652-gigabyte torrent that the Archive Team made available in October 2010 is free to anyone who wants to have a look. The most impressive project this release has spawned is the DeletedCity, a ghostly video interface that allows users to explore various GeoCities subdivisions and content. On the micro level, the Archive Team has been able to dig up and return the content of individual GeoCities users, like a late World War II veteran who had put his photo archive on the site. After ­GeoCities went down, the Archive Team uploaded the old pictures to a USB drive and mailed it his widow, free of charge. Phil Forget, a 26-year-old programmer in New York, used the GeoCities torrent to dig up his old images from the Japanese anime series Dragonball Z as well as animated caricatures he had made of his high-school teachers. The material isn't as significant to him as the widow's photographs were to her, but it is far from trivial. "It's like if you went back to your mom's house and found the doodles on the back of your marbled notebook, from fourth or fifth grade," Forget says. "You get this rush of memories."

Listening to Scott talk about the importance of our collective "digital heritage" makes the loss of sites like GeoCities feel as tragic as the burning of the Library of Alexandria, a vast archive of ancient texts, many of which existed nowhere else. (The library has a joking listing on the Archive Team's site, which lists its URL as "none" and the project's status as "destroyed.") Scott scoffs at the suggestion that material like the verses on Poetry.com might not be worth saving; he notes that the New York Public Library stores old menus in its rare-books collection. "No one questions that," he says.

Scott's two holy grails are the archives of Compuserve, which was one of the major online services of the dial-up era before eventually being absorbed by AOL, and those of a past incarnation of MP3.com, which formerly was devoted exclusively to independent musicians who wanted to share their work. "I bristle when I see that level of culture wiped away," he says. Scott believes that the archives of both sites must be out there somewhere; perhaps they are on reels of magnetic tape gathering dust in a garage. Sometimes he can appear to have an almost Peter Pan-ish unwillingness to accept the passage of time and the way information gives way to entropy. To him, the idea of data that cannot be saved is almost as heretical as the notion of data that is not worth saving.

Scott approaches today's multibillion-dollar repositories of user data—sites like Facebook, Google, and Flickr—with intense skepticism. The sister page of the Archive Team's Deathwatch is called "Alive ... OR ARE THEY?" and makes it abundantly clear that the data ethics of Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page are being carefully watched. Facebook "seems stable at the moment," says the Archive Team, while Google "wants you to think they will be here forever." Some posters on the Archive Team wiki have already criticized Google for closing down Google Labs, a section of the site devoted to experimental projects, and for warning that it might stop hosting previously uploaded content at Google Video. "Don't trust the Cloud to safekeep this stuff," Scott has warned.

"I get very cranky," he says. "You know the Google ad where the parent is recording family memories on YouTube, and keeping photos on Picasa, and telling his kid, 'I can't wait to share these with you someday'? Well, not if you keep it on Google. They make these claims that you can keep things forever, but in fact it's all temporary."

Buie, the high-school senior, argues that keeping old data serves a purpose whether or not anyone is using it now. "Take the Friendster stuff," he says. "Maybe no one will look at it until 2250. That doesn't matter to me. What matters is that the knowledge is there." Buie found the Archive Team through his avocation as a historian of early hardware. He had gone to a "too good to waste" section of his county's dump, looking for early computers to refurbish and add to his collection. After bringing home an Apple II and scouring the Web for information on spare parts, he saw a reference to a defunct GeoCities page that had the information he was looking for, and his search for this page led him to the Archive Team's GeoCities project. Now Buie frames his work with Scott as part of the solution to a broader cultural problem on the Web. "There isn't enough focus on the past, on where we came from," he says. "And if you forget the past, then the future becomes meaningless, because you don't even know how you got to where you're standing."

As Scott continues to project his message with maximum bombast, it appears that some of the Web's leading brands are coming around to his views. When Google launched its social-networking service Google+ last June, it introduced a new feature called Takeout that would combine users' posts and export the files for them. Gmail already let users export their contact lists, making it easier to switch to competitors' products. "I personally won't be happy until every last bit of your data is available through Takeout," says Brian Fitzpatrick, an engineering manager at Google who leads the company's data liberation efforts. He says Google should do it so that users trust the company: "It's not because we're nice." Though Facebook declined to comment for this article, it has added a Takeout-like "Download a Copy" function for the photos, messages, and other content users keep on the site.

As for Scott, he is looking further ahead. He's already planning for that distant day when his most important piece of metadata—the knowledge he has amassed of his own collections—will go blank. "Mortality?" he says. "I have a distributed array of servers. Whatever I acquire, I share out as fast as possible. None of it is sitting on a hard drive in one guy's house."

Thursday, December 22, 2011

50 Excellent Library Science Blogs Worth Reading

Library science, or library information science (LIS), might conjure up hermits in musty, dark rooms, cataloging index cards into towering file cabinets. But, that image is incorrect today, as library science now pertains to digital cataloging, social networking and a changing history in archival science. This list of 50 excellent library science blogs are worth reading for any contemporary library science professional.

Information Science and Systems
Bibliographic Wilderness: Jonathan Rochkind writes about library digital systems and services, metadata, cataloging, and the collective effort to help people navigate the ‘information wilderness.’
Catalogablog: This blog focuses on library cataloging, classification, metadata, subject access and related topics.
Cataloguing Aids: The author hopes that this blog can serve as an index for the Cataloguing Aids Web site.
Cataloging Futures: The metadata librarian at Princeton Theological Seminary writes this blog about cataloging.
Hey Jude: Judy O’Connell started this blog in 2006 to help her engage in social networking and to inform her work as a librarian with skills in information services.
Infomusings: A doctoral student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill writes about her studies in Personal Information Management (PIM) and teaches the intro to library cataloging course.
Information Research – ideas and debate: A spin-off from the e-journal dedicated to informal publication of ideas and comment on current affairs in the information world.
The Cataloguing Librarian: The collections access librarian at Halifax Public Libraries writes this blog as a resource for herself and other catalogers.
The FRBR Blog: A blog following developments around FRBR, or Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records.
The Serials Cataloger: News, research, and other information of interest to serials catalogers.
Z666.7.B39: Musings related to metadata, cataloging, and the world of librarianship from the electronic resources cataloging coordinator at Princeton University Library.
OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Blogs
025.431: The Dewey blog: “Everything you always wanted to know about the Dewey Decimal Classification system but were afraid to ask.”
HangingTogether: This blog is a place where some of the OCLC Research staff, particularly those individuals who support the RLG Partnership of libraries, archives, and museums, can talk about the intersections they see happening between these different types of institutions.
Hectic Pace: Andrew Pace, the executive director for Networked Library Services at OCLC, is the author of this blog.
Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog: Lorcan currently works for OCLC as vice president, OCLC research and chief strategist.
OCLC Developer Network: This blog is about library Web services from the OCLC Web services group and its Developer Network.
Outgoing: Library metadata techniques and trends by Thom Hickey, OCLC’s chief scientist.
Q6: This blog is maintained by Jeff Young, software architect at OCLC.
WebJunction: WebJunction is an online community where library staff meet to share ideas, solve problems, take online courses – and have fun.
Weibel Lines: Ruminations on libraries, Internet standards, and “stuff that comes to mind” from a

100 of the best blogs a library science student can read.

By Rose Jensen

If you’re studying library science online, you’re in luck. There is a world of information available to you online, much of it in blogs. Follow this list, and you’ll find 100 of the best blogs a library science student can read. These blogs are written by students and educators.

1.InfoMuse: Kristina M. Spurgin from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill writes this blog about libraries and information science.
2.InfoEdiface: A Wayne State University student writes this blog about information architecture, library science, and technology.
3.CAS Library Blog: Here you’ll find Penn State’s blog for library resources in the communication arts and sciences discipline.
4.Librarian Way: This blog is written by Heather Ebey, a Master of Library and Information Science student at San Jose State University.
5.Libraries & Learning: This blog is written by Martha Whitehead of University of British Columbia Library for academic information specialists.
6.Librarian Web Chic: Karen Coombs is an Informational Technology and Instruction library at SUNY Cortland.
7.Confessions of a Mad Librarian: This blog is written by a soon-to-graduate LIS student.
8.Library Cog: Art Rhyno from the University of Windsor discusses library systems and more on this blog.
9.Library Automation: Read this project blog about library automation from the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University.
Information Science & Systems Check out these blogs to learn about information science and systems.

1.LibInfoSpace: Follow LibInfoSpace to get updated on library information systems and services.
2.Library Monk: Dan Greene shares his thoughts on library and information science and beyond on this blog.
3.Catalogablog: Read Catalogablog for issues in cataloging and more.
4.Serials Scene: Serials Scene discusses the acquisition and cataloging of print and digital serial publications.
5.Christina’s LIS Rant: Check out this blog about library and information science.
6.025.431: The Dewey Blog: Get a look into the Dewey Decimal Classifaction system on this blog.
7.Future4catalogers: This blog will help you understand what’s coming in cataloging.
8.Hey Jude: Judy O’Connell writes this blog about information science in the world of learning.
9.Metalogue: Follow this blog to learn about dew directions in cataloguing and metadata.
10.Online IT Degrees: This blog discusses the latest in library IT and integration.
11.Bibliographic Wilderness: Use this blog to learn about helping people navigate the information wilderness.
12.Z666.7.B39: Jennifer Bax’s blog is all about metadata and cataloging in the library.
13.Information Research: This publication offers ideas and debate on the information world.
14.Cataloging Futures: This blog discusses the future of cataloging and metadata in libraries.
15.Outgoing: Read Outgoing for library metadata techniques and trends.
16.The FRBR Blog: The FRBR Blog shares developments in functional requirements for bibliographic records.
17.Catalogue & Index Blog: Find news, events, and more for cataloguers on this blog.
18.Planet Cataloging: This blog offers an aggregation of key cataloging blogs.
19.WorldCat: Get a look into WorldCat with this blog.
20.The Serials Cataloger: This blog offers information of interest to serials catalogers.
21.oss4lib: Check out this blog, and you’ll get a look into open source systems for libraries.
22.The Cataloguing Librarian: Read The Cataloguing Librarian to find resources and information for cataloguers.
23.ASC Online: On this blog, you’ll find posts about information science and technology education.
24.Catalogue Blog: Read the Catalogue Blog for links, news, and information on cataloging, including unusual titles and quotations.
Librarian 2.0 Get a look into the next generation of librarians with these blogs.

1.Librarian.net: Jessamyn West shares her thoughts on the growing field of library science technology on this blog.
2.NexGen Librarian: On NexGen, you’ll find a forum for librarian and information professionals with a fresh perspective.
3.Alliance Virtual Library: Check out this blog to learn about libraries on Second Life.
4.Life of Books: This blog is dedicated to the future of libraries in the digital age.
5.iLibrarian: iLibrarian shares news and resources on Library 2.0 and the information revolution.
6.David Lee King: David Lee King blogs about the future of digital technology in library science.
7.University Online: Adrienne discusses library technological innovation.
8.Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0: Read about the intersection of Library 2.0 and information literacy on this blog.
9.Transforming Scholarly Communication: Find resources about scholarly electronic publishing efforts online on this blog.
10.Thing-ology Blog: LibraryThing’s blog discusses tags, libraries, and related issues.
11.The Search Lounge: In this librarian’s blog, you’ll find helpful information about the search engine industry.
12.Exploded Library: Check out this blog for information overload, search techniques, and more.
13.Michael E. Casey: Michael Casey offers a library 2.0 perspective for the next generation library.
14.InfoTangle: Read InfoTangle to get a look into Web 2.0 for librarians.
15.Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog: Lorcan Dempsey discusses libraries, services, and networks.
16.blogwithoutalibrary: Amanda’s blog focuses on user experience in libraries.
17.Libraries Interact: This blog focuses on making libraries more interactive.
18.Pop Goes the Library: This blog discusses pop culture and libraries.
19.The Shifted Librarian: The Shifted Librarian writes to make librarians more portable.
20.Bibliotheke: This blog allows you to watch libraries evolve.
21.Annoyed Librarian: The Annoyed Librarian offers rants about the state of librarianship.
Information Literacy These blogs will educate you in information literacy.

1.Formist Informations: Here you’ll find a French-speaking blog about libraries and information literacy.
2.Information Literacy Weblog: Read this blog to find relevant information and resources for information literacy worldwide.
3.Information Literacy Librarian: This blog offers an exploration of information literacy instruction theory and practices.
4.The Information Literacy Land of Confusion: Learn about the confusion in information literacy from this blog.
5.Open Stacks: Open Stacks promotes information access and literacy for all.
6.Information Literacy Weblog: Written by three professors, this blog shares news about information literacy worldwide.
7.The Lateral Literal Librarian: Get a look into topics including information literacy, technoliteracy, and biblioliteracy on this blog.
Technology Learn about the latest library science technology with these blogs.

1.The Digital Librarian: This blog offers commentary about digital services through digital libraries.
2.Connecting Librarian: This librarian connects new ideas and technologies with library service.
3.Libraries and Their Impact on the Digital Divide: Read this blog to find out how libraries have an impact on the digital divide.
4.Tame The Web: Read about current technology uses in libraries from this blog.
5.Blyberg: Blyberg is written by and for library geeks.
6.Weibel Lines: This blogger shares thoughts on libraries and Internet standards.
7.Information Wants To Be Free: Read Meredith Farkas’ blog to learn about social software in libraries.
8.Inquiring Librarian: Inquiring Librarian shares thoughts on librarianship, technology, and how they come together.
9.VALIS: This blog focuses on search, Web 2.0, and online information tools.
10.Phil Bradley’s Blog: On Phil Bradley’s blog, you’ll find links and news for librarians about search engines, design, and more.
11.Schooliblit: Schooliblit offers links and information about media centers, information literacy, technology in education, and beyond.
12.Closed Stacks: This blog shares writings on the state of information in the age of technology.
13.Librarian in Black: Find the latest news for tech savvy librarians on this blog.
14.Digital Reference: This teaching librarian blog discusses communication reference in the digital age.
15.The Invisible Web Weblog: Learn about information on the invisible web from this blog.
16.InSilico: This blog from Princeton is about digital libraries and metadata.
17.Library Technology Musings: Read this blog about ideas and solutions in technology for libraries.
18.Loomware: On this blog, you’ll learn about information and technology in academic libraries and beyond.
19.Library Web Chic: Library Web Chic offers a resources for librarians in web design and technology.
Resources These blogs will connect you with useful resources.

1.Librarian Activist: On this blog, you’ll find resources for becoming active in issues surrounding libraries.
2.Keeping Legal: This blog offers resources for legal issues affecting the information profession.
3.Library Juice: Library Juice discusses the intersection of libraries, politics, and culture.
4.Stephen Gallant Review: Stephen Gallant offers a look at reading for librarians and information specialists.
5.Cataloguing Aids: With this blog, you’ll be able to find cataloguing aids, reminders, and links.
6.AbsTracked: AbsTracked offers links in law, libraries, reference, and more, which are immensely useful for university students.
7.Threnody for the Public Domain: On this blog, you’ll learn about the current state of copyright and other related issues.
8.A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette: Find out how to be a polite librarian on this blog.
9.The Resource Shelf: Check out the Resource Shelf for news, search tips, and more for information professionals.
10.banned librarian: The banned librarian blog is written for librarians who support social justice.
11.A Librarian at the Kitchen Table: On this blog, you’ll find out how librarians can build community as advocates.
12.Union Librarian: Read this blog to stay on top of news about library unions.
13.Cybrarians: Find information about resources related to library and information science on this blog.
News Read these blogs to stay up to date on news that matters for library science students.

1.Information Community News: Stay aware of current events in the information community on this blog.
2.It’s all good: Find out about things that impact libraries and their users on this group blog.
3.Library Bytes: Get bits and pieces of news about libraries and new technologies from Library Bytes.
4.Unshelved: Unshelved offers news and comic strip entertainment for librarians.
5.Library Stuff: Use this blog to stay on top of important resources for professional development as a librarian.
6.LISNews: On this collaborative blog, you’ll learn about current events and news in library and information science.
7.LIScareer News: Find news about careers in library information science on this blog.

50 Well Read Librarian Blogs

Friar's Balsam50 Well-Read Librarian Blogs
Our 50 Well Read Librarian Blogs offer an inside look at the inner workings of libraries. Many of our posts are written by librarians in the business or information technology graduates who are interested in updating library services for the 21st century. They are informative, well written, unique, and often funny. Our top blogs offer an inside look at such items as library technology, a day in the life of a librarian, issues and conflicts within the organization, and much, much more. These are the best of the best.


Top Five
1.librarian.net: Jessamyn is a librarian who works in rural Vermont. She is a library technologist who offers articles on a wide variety of library related issues.
◦Why We Love It: This site has been around since 1999 and is a favorite of many readers and leaders in the library profession. Who are we to argue with them?
◦Favorite Post: Privacy and library data: email, IPs and &c.
2.Information Wants to be Free: Blogger Meredith is an adjunct member at San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science. She writes about the tools librarians use to help serve their patrons.
◦Why We Love It: The blog posts are well written, enjoyable to read, and lengthy. It covers a variety of topics within the field and it does so with wit and grace -- this is a great site for librarians and students alike.
◦Favorite Post: Ebooks and Libraries: A Stream of Concerns
3.Stephen's Lighthouse: Stephen's Lighthouse helps to illuminate library industry trends and new advances in innovation. The blogger writes from a perspective of true knowledge, as he has visited over a hundred libraries in many different countries throughout his life.
◦Why We Love It: This is an intelligent site that offers great information on library services, trends, innovation, technology, and everything in between.
◦Favorite Post: Books are Our Brand? Wish they weren’t . . .
4.Free Range Librarian: Free Range Librarian offers insight into librarianship, writing, and everything in between. The blogger is a director of the Cushing Library at Holy Names University in Oakland, California.
◦Why We Love It: This is just a great site for those looking to learn a little bit more about what goes on behind the scenes of a library.
◦Favorite Post: Slowly, slowly run, o horses of the night
5.Annoyed Librarian: The Annoyed Librarian offers scathing musings on libraries and everything else in this hard-hitting blog. It's tag line is "Fighting Libraries in Oakland," but it offers much more in the way of content as well.
◦Why We Love It: This is something different. You feel it the first time you look at the excerpts of articles on the site. The writer has a voice, a belief system, and they aren't going to compromise for anyone.
◦Favorite Post: Five Ways Lady Gaga is Not a Librarian
The Rest of the Best
•A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette: A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette has a tag line that states a polite librarian is a good librarian. It actually just offers funny advice for overstressed librarians to get a good laugh out of.
•Academic Librarian: The Academic Librarian blog offers topics on libraries, history, rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, and more from a philosophy and religion librarian at Princeton University.
•ACRLog: ACRLog is a blog dedicated to providing information from (and for) academic and research librarians. This is a well-run site with a load of information and detailed postings to boot.
•Alice in InfoLand: Blogger Alice writes about both the reality and illusion within the realms of school and library life. She also takes a look at 21st century information distribution as well.
•Book Frontiers: Lydia is a librarian who reviews books on her blog. Her blog is all about literature that she comes across as a school librarian.
•Bowllan's Blog: Bowllan's Blog is a part of the larger School Library Journal website. Many of the posts involve ways in which books can help educate the masses to become better people.
•Closed Stacks: The Closed Stacks blog is a collaborative website written by a variety of different librarians. It's meant to entertain, educate, and enlighten its readers.
•Cool Librarian: The blog covers such topics as search engines, databases, directories, and other such library-related topics she loves to blog about on her site.
•David Lee King: The blogger offers insight into library websites and digital technology in this interesting blog. He covers management, marketing, planning, and much else.
•DIY Librarian: DIY Librarian offers a variety of posts about librarianship and other related topics. Stories include dogs in libraries, conferences, a day in the life of a library day, and much more.
•Eclectic Librarian: Blogger Anna is a university librarian who offers insight into serials, database cataloging, and electronic resources within libraries, among many other topics.
•Hey Jude: Blogger Judy is on the editorial board for School Libraries Worldwide. She writes about school and library-related issues on her blog.
•iLibrarian: The blog contains information on topics such as design, simplifying cataloging, marketing, e-books, library data, and much more.
•In the Library with the Leadpipe: In the Library with the Leadpipe offers some lengthy, funny, and witty commentary on things related to librarianship. This is a solid site.
•Judge a Book by its Cover: Judge a Book by its Cover offers some hilarious articles and pictures that have to do with book covers. The blogger worked in library services for many years and uses this knowledge to create a great website on truly bad book covers.
•Law Librarian Blog: A blog about the intersection of information services and the law. For those law-minded individuals, this is a great site for information on congressional bills, libraries, jobs, and news.
•Librarian Avengers: Librarian Avengers comes from Erica, a librarian who holds a master's in information science. She offers articles on a variety of topics on librarianship and beyond.
•Librarian By Day: This blog is all about libraries coming into the 21st century intact, more technologically advanced, and better for it.
•Librarianing: The blogger is a project coordinator and virtual reference librarian for a nonprofit organization. She offers some crazy posts on the subject matter.
•Librarians are Weird: "Librarians are weird, but in a good way" is the tag line for this blog. The main focal points of the site are usually video/film/television related, such as topics on reviews and media literacy.
•Librarians Matter: Blogger Kathryn offers up an all-encompassing blog that deals with libraries, technology, being a mother, and everything and anything in between.
•LISNews: LISNews offers stories on everything relating to libraries, librarians, and technology. This is an all-encompassing site for those interested in the subject matter all the way up to those working in the profession.
•Love the Liberry: Blogger Amy offers pretty crazy stories about being a librarian in this blog. This is a funny and witty spot for those looking to see what a day in the life actually feels like.
•Peter Scott's Library Blog: Peter Scott's Library Blog gives information on new technologies in library services, writing, librarian surveys, and much more.
•Planet Cataloging: Planet Cataloging is all about cataloging and metadata and is maintained by two bloggers. If you're into that kind of stuff, this site is definitely for you.
•Practically Paradise: Practically Paradise offers insights into being a librarian, library services, and much more in this small yet informative blog.
•School Librarian in Action: The blogger is a school librarian, teacher, writer, and literacy advocate. School Librarian in Action offers topics on digital story telling, young adult novels, librarian conferences, and much more.
•Tame the Web: Tame the Web offers musings on libraries, technology, and people. It comes from a blogger who is an assistant professor in library and information science at San Jose State University.
•The Batty Librarian: The blogger is a library manager currently working and residing in England. She writes posts for the information professional.
•The Blah, Blah, Blah Blog: The Blah, Blah, Blah Blog offers insight into library services. Topics include how to deal with conflict, technology conferences, library workforce, book repair, and many, many more.
•The Days and Nights of the Lipstick Librarian: The Days and Nights of the Lipstick Librarian definitely has its own voice. There's some great information here on being a librarian, and many of the posts are funny and feel like they were written from the heart.
•The Digital Librarian: The blog gives musings on the intersection between library services and technology.
•The Food Librarian: The Food Librarian offers posts from a librarian who moonlights as a chef by night. There are recipes galore here!
•The Laughing Librarian: The Laughing Librarian offers tidbits and stories about librarians and the like with a humorous slant to them. It's a bold site that offers some great humor for its readers.
•The Original Library Trading Cards: The Original Library Trading Cards offers a site for librarians. It's actually a great place to go to see the different types of librarians and what they do each day at work.
•The Shifted Librarian: Blogger Jenny writes about making libraries "more portable." She delves into information technology and ways in which people can get books and such information more quickly and easier.
•The Society for Librarians* Who Say "&#(^@$*#&*@#": While this site does contain some adult language, it's an interesting spot for library workers, specialists, technicians, students, interested parties, and more to learn about the field.
•The Travelin' Librarian: The Travelin' Librarian offers blog posts from a technology innovation librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission. For more than 15 years, he's trained librarians in technology, and this knowledge comes through in his blog.
•The Unquiet Librarian: Blogger Buffy offers insight into what it's like to be a modern school librarian. There are some really interesting articles here.
•Thoughts of a [wannabe] librarian…: The blog offers musings on how to become a librarian. There's more content here, as well, with technology issues and library services as main focal points of the blog.
•Unshelved: The blog offers a weekly comic strip and covers library-related issues as well. There are book reviews offered, too.
•Uol Library Blog: The Uol Library Blog provides information on staff and the goings on of the University of Leicester Library. It's become a place, though, for workers and those interested in library services to go to get their fill of the day's news.
•Virtual Dave...Real Blog: The blogger is a professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. He covers issues within the spectrum of librarianship and technology for the reader.
•Walt at Random: Blogger Walt is a librarian who's been active in the field for much of his life. He calls his blog the library voice of the radical middle, and it fits that description aptly.
•Yalibrarian: Yalibrarian offers articles on library jobs, public libraries, online libraries, librarians, and much else in this small yet informative blog.

Friday, December 16, 2011

BOOK Buddies

Free Online Books You will see only 4 EBooks activated for download right now. Booksbuddies.com places a high value on sharing and giving! So in order to get access to more EBooks you will have to ask your friends, family, social network or anyone who is interested in books to join this site. As more of your friends join in, more ebooks will be unlocked and you can boast of having one of the highest quality libraries in the world! So promote your special link below and get more ebooks unlocked! so PROMOTE READING HABIT

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Indexing

This is to provide basic information on indexing as a freelance career, and to list resources for further information. There is a wealth of information on indexing, including books, workshops, and training courses. This file can only provide a brief orientation and a list of resources for study. As you read it, remember that the broad, general statements are not universal laws; there are many ways to approach indexing, and people doing indexing do not fit all the broad statements in every respect. We will be happy if this file tells a non-indexer a useful way (not the best or only way) to think about the work before deciding to try to do it. We know that many (perhaps most) will realize after a time that they don't fit the rules of thumb either. If you do decide to pursue this challenging, rewarding and important work, please seek out the many other wonderful resources available; stay in touch with the field and other indexers through ASI, never stop learning and improving your skills and understanding. We hope you find this file useful. We welcome your comments.

L. Pilar Wyman (pilarw@wymanindexing.com) and Larry Harrison.

What is indexing? Who does indexing? How is indexing done? Can't a computer do the indexing?
What skills or education do indexers need? How do indexers get clients? How much are indexers paid? How do indexers price their services?
What kind of annual income can I expect from indexing? How can I learn to index?


When I tell people that I am working on an index to a book, they tend to hang their heads in sorrow. I tell them that compiling an index for a book is a lot more fun than writing a book could ever be, a relaxing jaunt from A to Z compared with a jerky stop-start trek without maps.
— Craig Brown, Times Saturday Review, 21 July 1990

1. What is indexing?
According to the British indexing standard (BS3700:1988), an index is a systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable users to locate information in a document. The process of creating an index is called indexing, and a person who does it is called an indexer. There are many types of indexes, from cumulative indexes for journals to computer database indexes. This discussion concentrates on the back-of-the-book index, found in nonfiction books.

Indexes are among those necessary but never spectacular products of hard as well as skilled work that can sometimes make the difference between a book and a good book.
index review in Books Ireland, February 1994

The chief purpose of an index is distillation, and in performing that task it can manage to suggest a life's incongruities with a concision that the most powerful biographical stylist will have trouble matching.
Thomas Mallon, New York Times, 10 March 1991

The ocean flows of online information are all streaming together, and the access tools are becoming absolutely critical. If you don't index it, it doesn't exist. It's out there but you can't find it, so it might as well not be there.
Barbara Quint, ASI San Diego Conference, 1994

2. Who does indexing?
In the United States, according to tradition, the index for a non-fiction book is the responsibility of the author. Most authors don't actually do it. While a few publishers have in-house indexers, most indexing is done by freelancers, often working from home, hired by authors, publishers or packagers. (A packager is an independent business which manages the production of a book by hiring freelancers to accomplish the various tasks involved, including copyediting, proofreading and indexing.) More often, the indexer is hired by the publisher, and the fee is deducted from the money due the author. If a packager hires the indexer directly, various payment arrangements can be made.

Indexing work is not recommended to those who lack an orderly mind and a capacity for taking pains. A good index is a minor work of art but it is also the product of clear thought and meticulous care.
Peter Farrell, How to Make Money from Home

3. How is indexing done?
The indexer usually receives a set of page proofs for the book (images of the actual pages as they will appear, including final page numbers), often at the same time as final proofreading is being done by someone else. The indexer reads the page proofs, making a list of headings and subheadings (terms to appear in the index) and the location of each pertinent reference. After completing the rough index the indexer edits it for structure, clarity and consistency, formats it to specifications, proofreads it and submits it to the client in hard-copy form, on disk, by modem, or by email. Since the indexer is very late in the production process, there can be unreasonable time pressure.

As to how to index, what goes on between the ears, that's a subject for books, courses, workshops and lifelong learning from experience.

Less time is available for the preparation of the index than for almost any other step in the bookmaking process. For obvious reasons, most indexes cannot be completed until page proofs are available. Typesetters are anxious for those few final pages of copy; printers want to get the job on the press; binders are waiting; salesmen are clamoring for finished books surely you can get that index done over the weekend?
Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed.

Indexers are in effect trying to provide answers to a host of unasked questions. Indexers therefore need to work as if their audience is present. But there are two snags: first, in most cases they do not know who this audience will be; second, in most cases they do not receive any feedback as to whether their judgments have been successful. From a communicative point of view, there is probably no more isolated intellectual task than indexing. The twilight howl of the indexer might well be Is there anybody there?
David Crystal, editorial, The Indexer, April 1995

4. Can't a computer do the indexing?
The short answer is no. Computers can easily construct a concordance (a list of words or phrases and where they appear), but this is not an index, and is not very useful to someone looking for information. The so-called automatic indexing software programs now appearing on the market are simply not up to the task of indexing a book. Book indexing involves a little bit of manipulating words appearing in a text, which computers can do, and a lot of understanding and organizing the ideas and information in the text, which computers cannot do and will not do for many years to come. An example of the difference is that a book on protective gloves for occupational use might have a chapter discussing surgical gloves, how they get punctured and how they are tested for integrity, but might never use the word holes. Yet a user of the book would expect to find this word in the index and be directed to the appropriate chapter. The indexer handles dozens or hundreds of such issues in every book.

Where the text is already on computer disk, the indexing features of word processing programs can ease the handling of page numbers and sorting, but the real indexing work is still done by the human. Powerful dedicated software is also available for personal computers to aid the professional indexer in constructing, sorting, editing and formatting the index, whether from hard-copy text or computer files. Many indexers use one of the programs listed on the Indexing Software page.

Automated indexing was never intended to produce back-of-the-book indexes. As Indexicon demonstrates so well, back-of-the-book indexes cannot be automatically generated.
Nancy Mulvany and Jessica Milstead, review of Indexicon, Key Words, Sep/Oct 1994

5. What skills or education do indexers need?
Many publishers and packagers don't ask for specific degrees or credentials unless they are looking for someone with subject matter expertise for a technical book. (See question 10 for more about courses on indexing.) Skills needed to learn indexing include excellent language skills, high clerical aptitude, accuracy and attention to detail. Once you are indexing professionally, you will find that self-discipline, curiosity, tolerance of isolation and love of books are necessary to keep going. In addition to all this, of course, there are the business and marketing skills needed to succeed as a self- employed professional. Clients take their cue from you: if you behave in a professional manner, most of them treat you accordingly.

Whoever the indexer is, he or she should be intelligent, widely read, and well acquainted with publishing practices also levelheaded, patient, scrupulous in handling detail, and analytically minded. This rare bird must while being intelligent, levelheaded, patient, accurate, and analytical work at top speed to meet an almost impossible deadline.
Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed.

I wonder whether there is any profession in which a knowledge of one's tongue is of the slightest use.
T.E. Lawrence, on winning 1st place in English Language and Literature in the Senior Oxford Local Exams, 1906

6. How do indexers get clients?
Most people start by sending letters and résumés to publishers. Find their addresses in Literary Marketplace, Writer's Market and Books in Print, available in your library. It may take hundreds of letters to get a first indexing job. Experienced indexers say they get most jobs through recommendations from satisfied clients and networking, although some still come from marketing efforts. Now, many people interested in indexing are pursuing the apprenticeship model, working with an established indexer to build skills and experience. The three best ways to get work? Network, network, network.

7. How much are indexers paid?
That's the wrong question. (I know, I wrote the question, but that's the way it's usually asked.) A freelance indexer is running a small business; as a businessperson, you are not paid, you set prices and charge for a service. You are not an employee; you are an independent contractor. This is an important distinction because of how it changes your thinking. It's also very important for tax purposes, but that's off the subject. Try questions 8 and 9.

8. How do indexers price their services?
The two most common ways of quoting book index prices are per page and per entry. Different publishers prefer different methods, and indexes for different media (databases, periodicals, etc.) also are priced differently. All the different ways of quoting prices can be reduced to a fee per hour. While experienced indexers come to know what rates per page or per entry they can afford to accept, beginning indexers would be well-advised to focus on the hourly fee when figuring their bids. This enables new indexers to decide what kinds of work are best for them, and to track improvements in skill, efficiency and income as they become experienced.

If you are starting out as a freelance indexer, you won't be able to get the same fee as an indexer with 10 years of experience. This does not mean inviting exploitation by unscrupulous clients. Remember, if you are qualified as an indexer, you are producing a professional product, and you should be fairly compensated. Set yourself a rock-bottom hourly fee for run-of-the-mill indexing, the lowest figure you should ever accept, and stick to it. Remember, no one says you have to take what the prospective client is offering. No one says the client has to pay what you charge. Both parties are free to negotiate or go elsewhere. It is your responsibility to set the fee you charge for indexing, and negotiate to get it.

Indexers need to charge for their services according to the time they expect to spend on the work. On the other hand, many clients want a predictable price since they are under budget constraints. These clients will not pay by the hour, especially if they don't know your work. How do you quote your prices to get your hourly fee?

If the client opens the discussion by saying she wants the index done for $1,200, or for a certain amount per indexable page, a fixed bid is called for. (Pricing per page is a type of fixed bid; it can be agreed to in advance even if an exact page count is not known.) Fixed bids are good for the client but risky for the indexer. The indexer must be familiar with the book before a reasonable bid can be given, because of wide variations in words per page and complexity of material. The expected number of entries per page or in the whole index should also be specified, since this is a key factor in the time spent doing the index.

Publishers in some fields (medicine, for example) want to ensure a detailed index, so they use pricing by the entry. As long as both parties are clear on exactly what constitutes an entry and how they are counted, this has the advantage of compensating the indexer for extra time spent on complex material. Again, the expected number of entries per page should be specified.

No matter how the bid is to be figured, start with the hourly fee to make sure you are being compensated according to your set rate. First, estimate how many hours it will take you to do the index, including editing, proofing and preparing final copy. This estimate is crucial. Actually indexing a representative sample of the book is helpful here, and estimating skills should improve with experience. Then multiply by your hourly fee to get the total amount you expect for indexing the book. If the client wants a lump sum bid, you are done.

To prepare a bid or price quote for a client who uses per-page pricing, divide your total estimate by the page count. To prepare a price quote on a per-entry basis, figure the total number of entries in the book and divide this into the total estimate. In summary, use one of the following methods, where $FEE is the total fee, PAGES the indexable page count of the book, and ENTRIES the total number of entries in the book (ENTRIES is average entries per page times the number of pages):

Fixed price = $FEE

Per-page rate = $FEE / PAGES

Per-entry rate = $FEE / ENTRIESIf the client has a price or rate in mind, work the numbers backward to figure the hourly fee resulting from the client's number before deciding whether you can afford to accept it.

When someone offers you an indexing assignment at $12 per hour, take note of the advice from Dr. Wellisch in the next quote; you could do almost as well at McDonald's!

An hourly indexing fee should always be at least four times the wage one can earn by flipping hamburgers at a fast-food emporium.
Dr. Hans Wellisch, Indexing from A to Z

Hourly rates in 1993 started at $20 to $25 per hour and went up from there.
Nancy Mulvany, Indexing Books

9. What kind of annual income can I expect from indexing?
Here are some important factors which affect your income from indexing or any other independent service business:

1.How you set your prices.
2.How much you want to work.
3.How skilled you are at finding enough good clients to keep busy.
4.How skilled, and fast, you are at indexing.
5.How much your business expenses are.
In short, your income depends on your motivation and your business skills as well as your indexing skills. There are indexers who treat it as a relaxing, part-time business; there are indexers who work long hours and support themselves in nice middle-class style as a result. Most probably fall in between. You have to decide what you are looking for.

You need to spend time learning how to start and run a business as well as learning to index. Books and magazines on home-based business and entrepreneurship have lots of ideas and advice applicable to freelance indexers. Seminars and workshops on business skills and sales technique can be quite useful, but be careful with your money. Talk to graduates before signing up.

Suppose we look ahead to the future, finding that after gaining some experience, you reach a speed and skill level where the combination of rates paid by clients and the time you spend doing the work results in a good hourly rate. What hourly rate might you expect? ASI regularly surveys freelance and in-house indexers to find out what salaries and fees are being paid. The latest survey is available on this website, in the Members Area. If you are an ASI member, you may view and download the survey. In case you don't have access to this information, bear with me as I discuss the mechanics of estimating your self-employment income without using a specific rate.

To estimate your annual income from indexing, multiply your hourly rate by the average number of work hours in a year. Forty hours per week times 52 weeks a year is 2,080. Wait! If you want to index full-time, you need to consider all the time your business takes besides actual indexing. Writing letters and making calls to get work, rushing to the FedEx office before they close, billing, doing your tax return, shopping for supplies, backing up your computer files, meal breaks and occasional holidays and vacations (remember those?) are all unpaid time. Don't forget idle time between jobs; it takes several years of building a client base for most indexers to get full-time work. If you plan to put 40 hours per week into your business, then allowing for all the above within the 40 hours results in a rule of thumb of about 1,200 hours per year of actual paid indexing work.

OK, multiply your hourly fee by 1,200. That's your gross revenue. But remember, this is a business; your actual income is much less. To figure hourly income, self-employment taxes (currently 15.3%) and federal, state and local income taxes come off the top, plus the cost of your supplies, utilities, ASI membership dues and the amortized cost of your office equipment. (See Schedule C of Form 1040 for calculating business taxes, expense deductions and amortization.) A good rule of thumb is to take at least 50% off the rate.

So, multiply your hourly income (about 50% of your hourly rate) by how many hours you can work per year (1,200 while you are getting established, based on a 40-hour week). If this is not enough for you to live on, don't quit the day job yet. Most indexers start indexing as a part-time moonlighting effort, supporting themselves with another job. Once they are sure they want to do this kind of work full-time, and clients are paying well and keeping them so busy it is hard to get everything done, they can make the decision to try full-time indexing.

Once you are well-established, idle periods and time spent marketing diminish, resulting in more paid work hours. You can eventually reach 2,000 hours per year, if you are willing to work more than 40 hours per week. In addition, a very good indexer who works fast can make a higher hourly rate for a given page rate, because it takes fewer hours to do the work. Money magazine recently published an article on successful home-based businesses which quoted one experienced freelance indexer who says he averages $50,000 per year. Some indexers are skeptical; others say this is possible after a few years if you work hard and find the right clients.

Wealth ... is more accurately measured in what you enjoy than in what you possess.
Jean Aspen, Arctic Son

10. How can I learn to index?
A local college or university with a Library Science or Information Science department may offer indexing courses. Many people take the indexing correspondence courses (Basic Indexing and Applied Indexing) offered by the US Department of Agriculture. Assignments are graded by indexing professionals and a certificate of completion can be provided.

If you are considering ASI membership, take note of the excellent self-paced course offered to ASI members. Available on interactive CD-ROM, this comprehensive course includes many practical exercises and self-assessments. A certificate of completion can be obtained by taking the optional exams.

Look at the Indexing Courses and Workshops web page for more information about all these options. Before you invest money in an expensive course, check out some books on the subject to gauge your interest and aptitude.


Indexing cannot be reduced to a set of steps that can be followed! It is not a mechanical process. Indexing books is a form of writing. Like other types of writing, it is a mixture of art and craft, judgment and selection. With practice and experience, indexers develop their own style as do other writers. The best we can do as teachers of indexing is to present the rules and offer guidance.
— Nancy C. Mulvany, Indexing Books

Index learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.
— Alexander Pope, The Dunciad

Librarynd Information Technicians Terminlogy Sources

American National Standard Dictionary of Information Technology (ANSDIT)
http://www.ncits.org/tc_home/k5htm/ANSDIT.htm

Information Technology Glossary and Computer Terminology
http://www.2400hrs.com/glossary/index.htm

NetLingo : The Internet Dictionary
http://www.netlingo.com/inframes.cfm

WhatIs.com
http://whatis.techtarget.com/

Information and Library Science: A Guide to Information Sources
http://library.albany.edu/subject/guides/infosciguide.html

Information and Library Science: A Guide to Information Sources
http://library.albany.edu/subject/guides/infosciguide.html

Library Language
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/guides/liblanggd.html

Library and Information Science Resources: Encyclopedia and Dictionaries
http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/libencs.html

Glossary of Academic Information Technology Terms
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/glossary.shtml

Information Literacy Glossary
http://www.ycp.edu/library/ifl/glossary.html

LiveOffice Email-Related Technology Terms
http://www.liveoffice.com/glossary.asp

Labels

1870 (1) 1898 (1) 1947 (2) 1960 (1) 1964 (1) 1978 (1) 1979 (1) 1980 (1) 1981 (1) 1982 (1) 1985 (21) 1986 (18) 1987 (12) 1988 (9) 1989 (19) 1990 (2) 2008 (1) 21st Centruy Librarian (1) A Study (7) Academic Libraries (1) Academic Research (11) ACRONYMS (1) Adopt-a Book (1) Adult Education (2) Agarwal (1) Agricultural Universities (3) AICTE (1) Aligarh Muslim University (1) Alphabetical Classarus (1) American library (1) americanliteratureresearch (1) Analytical Study (1) Analytico Synthetic Scheme (1) Anand A.K (1) Ancient Libraries (2) Andhare D R (1) Andhra Movement (1) Andhra Pradesh Libraries (2) Andhra University (1) Animation Libraries (1) Annual Publication (1) Applied Ethics (1) Archival Institutions (1) Archives (4) Assam Libraries (1) Associations (1) Astral Education (1) Bakul Foundation (1) Banaras HIndu University (6) Bangladesh (1) Bankapur M.B (1) Baradoi Ashok Kallappa (1) Barbara Kyle (1) barcodes (1) Bates Bibliography (1) Bavakutty (1) Beautiful Libraries (4) Behaviour studies (1) Best Blogs (2) Bhatta Rashmi (1) Bhattacharya G (1) bibliographic Analysis (1) Bibliographical Citations (1) Bibliographical Control (3) Bibliographical Services (1) Bibliography (11) Bibliometric Analysis (2) bibliometrics (6) Binwal Jagadish Chandra (1) Biographies (3) blind library (1) blogs (4) Bodhibukkana Dhida (1) Book Blogs (1) Book Clubs (2) book discussions (1) book fair (1) Book Interactions (1) Book Marking (1) Book Preservation (1) book publishing (2) Book reading (1) Book Review (1) book talk (1) Book Tubing (1) Bookkeeping (1) BookPromotion Council (1) Books Fairs Authority (2) Booksnap (1) Buddha Studies (1) Buddhist Libraries (1) Budget (1) Budgeting (2) Budgeting Course (1) Cartoon Libraries (1) CAS (1) Case study (3) Casual (1) CEC (3) Central Hindi Directorate (1) Chandran D (1) Chandran Ranjitha (1) Charan (1) CHD (1) Children Books Clubs (4) Chopra Hansraj (1) CIIS (1) citation (2) Citation Analysis (1) Citation Index (2) Citation Management Tools (2) Citiation Study (1) classification Systems (1) Classificationists (1) Classified Catalogue (1) Classifiers (1) Clay Library (1) Cloud Computing (2) collection Management (1) college Libraries (4) Comic Research Library (1) Comics Libraries (1) Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (1) Common Core Standards (1) Community Needs (1) Comparativ Study (1) Comparative Study (3) Computer Based Integrated Information Systems (1) Computerized Systems (1) Conference (2) Consortium for Educational Communication (1) Contribution (1) Copyright (3) Copyright Infringement (2) Courses Online (4) Critical Appraisal (2) Critical Study (3) CrowdFunding (1) CSTT (1) Current Affairs (1) Current Awareness Services (1) Curriculum (1) d (1) Das Radha Govind (1) Delhi University (1) descriptive questions (1) Deshpande K S (3) Design (1) Devadasan FJ (1) developing nations (1) Dewey Blog (1) Dharma Neelimesh (1) Dhavliker (1) Dhyani Pushpa (1) Digital Catalogue (1) Digital Editions (1) Digital Ethics (1) digital library (13) Digital Memory (1) Digital Preservations (9) digital publishing (8) Digital Repository (2) Digital Storage (5) Disertations (1) Dissertations (70) Distance Education (1) DLI (1) Doctoral Thesis (9) Documentation (1) documeting (1) Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalay (2) Dr Ranganathan S R (2) DUng Raghbir Singh (1) dyinglibraries (1) e books (1) E Commerce (1) E reader (1) E-books (2) East Africa Libraries (1) ebooks (2) Editing (1) Education Policy (1) Education Resources (3) electronic (3) Elementary Education (1) Empirical (1) employment (1) Employment Exchange (1) Ethics (1) Evaluation studies (2) Evernote (1) Exam (1) Faiz Ahmed (1) Farradane (1) FDI policy (1) File SHaring (2) Financial Issues (1) Five Big Words of Research (1) Flag (1) Foskett (1) Free books (1) Free Download (1) Free Sources (5) FreeLance Writing (1) FreeLearning (4) Fund (2) G.D Library movement (1) Gadre Mukund Mahadeo (1) Ganpule Sharadchandra R (1) Garg (1) Garg B S (1) General (1) Global Directoryof Dissertations (3) GOI (1) Google (1) Google Books (2) Goswami R P (1) Government Libraries (2) Government Norms (1) Government of India (1) grammer (1) Grant in Aid (1) GRANT LIBRARY (1) Granthalaya (1) Grey Literature for Research (4) Gujrat State Libraries (1) Gulbarga University (5) Gunjal SR (3) Gupta Awadh Bihari (1) Gupta Shri Ram (1) Guru Nanak Dev University (1) Guwahati University (1) Handmade Paper Books (1) Higher Education (4) Higher Education Network (2) Hindi Library (1) Hindi Literature (2) Human Library (2) Hyderabad Libraries (3) IANS (1) ICSSR (2) ICT (1) IGNOU (1) IIT Delhi (1) IIT Libraries (1) Ijari S R (1) INAGRIS (1) Index Languages (1) Indexing (4) Indexing System (1) INDIAN web portals (6) Indian Council for Cultural Resources (1) Indian Journals (3) Indian Language Books (2) Indian Libraries (6) Indian Library Associations (1) Indian Library Law (1) Indian Library Science Research (12) Indian Machine Tools (1) Indian Memory Project RBSI (1) Indian Research (1) Indian Universities (53) Indian University (2) Indo American (1) Industrial Innovations (1) Infibeam (1) Inflibnet (1) Information (1) Information Bursting (1) Information Centres (1) Information dissemination (1) information flow (1) Information growth (6) Information infrastructure (5) Information Management (1) Information Needs (1) Information policy (5) Information Retrieval (3) information science (4) Information seeking (1) Information Services (1) Information Sharing (3) Information Sources (1) information storage (8) Information Systems (3) International Library Schools (2) international Research (1) internet (5) internet safety (1) Investigative Study (1) Isaac K A (2) iSuite (1) iTHENTICATE (1) Jammu (1) Jawaharlal Nehru University (1) Jayaswal P K (1) Jiwaji University (1) Job satisfaction (2) Johnson E (1) journal management (1) K Writingstyle (1) Kamaiah Persipydi (1) Kamath V A (1) Karisidd (1) Karisiddappa C R (1) Karnatak University (13) Kaula P N (3) Kaushik Purnima (1) Khan Habib-Ur-Rehman AbdulKarim (3) KN Raj Library (1) knowledge (2) Knowledge Flow (1) Knowledge Mapping (1) KOHA (1) Konnur Madhukar Bhimrao (1) Kothari Commission (1) Kumar Krishna (1) Kumar Pradeep (1) Kumar PSG (1) Kumbhar.M.R (6) Lahir (1) Lalith Narayan Mitila University (1) Lamination (1) lbrary cess (1) Learning tools (2) Librarian (4) Librarian Blogs (1) librarians (4) libraries act Konar (1) Libraries Closing (1) Libraries Research (9) Librarr Books (1) Library (4) library science books (1) Library Acts (2) Library Affairs (1) Library Architecture (2) Library Associations (1) library automation (5) library blogs (5) Library Buildings (3) Library Calander (1) library catalogue (2) library circulation (4) Library Classification (9) Library Collections (1) Library community (1) library courses (3) Library Design (1) Library Development (1) Library Education (12) Library Effectivness (1) Library Finance (1) Library Finances (1) Library Flag (1) Library Grants (1) Library History (6) library indian (1) library journal (1) Library laws (1) Library legislature (3) library Management (6) Library Managers (1) Library marketing (1) Library Movement (1) Library Network (1) Library News (1) Library Operations (1) Library Planning (1) Library profession (1) Library Research (36) library science (5) library service (3) Library Services (1) Library Software (1) Library Song (3) Library Standards (1) library technology (5) library tower (1) Library Unique (19) Library User (2) LIS Books (9) LIS Research Method (6) LISEducation (2) Literature Growth (1) Literature Studies (1) Lithographs (1) M S University (2) Machine Readable Text (1) MadhyaPradesh (1) Madurai Kamaraj University (2) Mahapatra Manoranajan (1) Majumdar K J (2) Malhan I V (1) Malhotra Harpal Kaur (1) Management training (1) Mangla P B (1) Mango Leaves Books (1) Manipur University (1) Manorama Raju O R (1) Manpower Management (3) Manuscripts (10) Marathas (1) MarineNIC (1) Mathur Purnima (1) Medical CLassification Systems (2) Medical Libraries (2) MeraLibrary (1) MIMO (1) Mishra Bhavnath (1) Misra V N (1) Mobility Devices (1) Model Libraries (1) Modes of Subject (1) Mohinder Pratap Punjabi University Navalani (1) Monastic Libraries (1) Mukherjee B (1) Muncipal libraries (1) Museaum (1) Mutidisciplinary skills (1) Nagpur University (1) Nahar Nuran (1) Naidu Guruswamy N (1) Naidu Hema Sunder (1) Naidu L Kothandaram (1) NASSDOC (1) NAth PAras (1) National Archives (1) national book fair (1) National Information Centre (1) National Information System (2) National Knowledge Commission (1) National Lib (1) National Library (1) Navalani K (1) Navllani K (1) NCher (1) Neelameghan A (3) NET (1) Network Management (2) Network Security (1) Networking Technologies (2) Newspapers (5) NIC (1) Nomothetic (1) Nuchanarth P L (1) Ojha DInesh (1) Online Database (2) Online Education (8) Online Reading (5) Online Workshop (1) Online writing (6) Onlline Publishing (2) Oomen T K (1) Open Access (2) Open Content (2) Open Content Licensing (1) open data (1) Open Reserach Thesis (4) Oral History (1) Organisational studies (3) Orissa Libraries (1) Osmania University (1) P (1) Paintings (1) Pal Satnam Singh (1) Pali Language (2) Paricharak M P (1) Parmar P P (1) Patel S K (1) Paul Mohan Roy (1) Pawan Usha (1) Personal Collection (2) Personnel Mamagement (2) Personnel Management (1) pesticides (1) Phadke Manohar Y (1) PHD (28) Photocopying (1) Piracy (1) Plagiarism (7) pmo india (1) Pocket Size Books (1) POPSI (1) Prasher Ram Gopal (1) Preservation (1) Probablistic (1) Professional Attitudes (2) professional Orientation (1) professional studies (1) proof reading (1) Public Libraries (14) Public Library (5) public relations (1) publiclibraries (1) Publishers (9) PulinBihari Barua (3) Punjab University (12) Pustak Bhandar (1) Quereshi Israt Ali (1) questions (1) Raghavan K S (1) Raja Sir Mohammad Amir Hasan (1) Rajagopalan N (1) Raju AAN (1) Ramansu (1) Ranganathan (6) Ranganathan Studies (1) Rao D B Krishna (2) Rao P Gangadhara (1) Rare Books (4) Rashmi (1) Readers (1) Reading (3) Reading books (1) reference (2) Reference Book (2) Reference Management (2) Reference Services (3) Referencebooks (1) references (4) Referencing Techniques (1) Religious Libraries (1) Research Budget (2) research centres (1) Research Contributor ID (1) Research database (14) Research Design (2) Research Encyclopedia (1) Research in Libraries (2) Research Institutions (1) research journal (1) Research libraries (1) Research Literature (1) Research Management Service (5) Research Management Tools (2) Research Method (9) research methodology (4) Research Misconduct (4) Research Proposals (1) Research Resources (9) Research Security (1) research submission (1) Research Techniquies (1) Research topics (1) Research Trajectories (1) Research Writing (6) Researcher Rights (1) researchinlis (2) Reserch resources (5) Resource Sharing (1) Resources (3) Results (1) Rewadiker Shalini (1) rfid (1) Right to Education Act (1) Riswadkar M R (1) Riswadker M R (1) robot (1) Robotic Library (1) Rout Ratnakar (1) Royal Libraries (1) Rules (2) S B Vokil (1) s S (1) Saha Karuna (1) Sambalpur University (1) Sangam S L. Gunjal SR (2) Sanskrit Library (2) Sanskrit Literature (2) Sant D K (1) Saraswati Bhandar (1) Sarma Banikanta (1) Satija M P (1) Satish N G (1) Satyangsu Sekhar Barua (1) savelibraries (1) savemylibrary (1) Scholarly Communication (4) scholarly journals (1) School Librarian (1) Science Communication (1) Science Libraries (1) Scientific Literature (1) Scientific Technology (1) Seetharama Sistla (1) Sengar HN (1) Sengar HS (1) Serial Control (1) serials Management (1) Seth Ved (1) Sharma Ajay Kumar (1) Sharma C D (2) SHarma C P (1) Sharma Jagadish S (4) Sharma Narendra Nath (1) Sharma Radhakrishna (1) Shejwalkar PC (1) Shivaji University (1) Shivdandbhai Meranbhai 1990 Bhargava (1) Shree Dhar (1) Shrivastava VP (1) Silence (1) Singh Bibhuti Narayan (1) Singh Jagtar (1) Singh Kewal Jit (1) Singh Narayan (1) Singh S N (2) Singh Sewa (1) Sinha Arun Kumar (1) Sir Harcourt Butlor (1) Sirajul Islam (1) SISO (1) Social Networking (1) Social Science Research (2) Social Science Thesis (1) Social Sciences (1) social service (1) SocialCompare (1) software (2) software packages (1) Soma Raju Penmetsa (1) Special Libraries (2) Sri Venkateswara University (1) Sridhar MS (1) Statistical Analysis (1) Storage Technology (1) Story Telling (1) stratagic Planning (1) Study (1) Styles (2) SUbbaiah Revuru (1) Subejct Formation (1) Subject Index (1) Subject Indexing (2) Sud Neelam (1) Surendra Singh (1) Survey (3) Taher Mohammed (1) Talking Library (1) Talwar VG (1) Teachers Blogs (1) technical libraries (1) Technology (2) Technology Dictionary (1) Technology Learning (3) Technology Terms (2) Technology Transfer (1) TechnologyLIS (1) TEI (1) Tejomurthy A (1) Telangana Movement (1) Terminology (1) Text Encoding Initiative (1) Thai National Library (1) Theotrical (1) Thesaurus (1) Thesaurus Management (1) Thesis Management (2) Tikku UK (4) Tomar (1) tools (1) Toy Library (1) Transnational Libraries (1) Tree Bark (1) Tripathi Manorama (3) Tripathi S M (1) UGC (9) UGC NET (3) UGC NET Coaching (1) UGC NET Correspondence Course (1) UGC NET Mock Test (1) UGc NEt Objective Questions (1) UGC NET Study Material (2) UGC NEt Syllabus (1) UNESCO (1) unique (1) Unique Catalogue (1) unique Libraries (13) Unique Researcher (2) unique services (4) Unique Thesis (1) Universe of Subjects (1) University Archives (1) university education (6) University Libraries (16) University News (1) University of Burdwan (3) University of Calcutta (1) University of Calicut (1) University of Delhi (3) University of Jammu (2) University of Kerala (3) University of Madras (1) University of Mysore (3) University of Pune (4) university of Ra Vyas (1) University of Rajasthan (6) Univesity of Mysore (1) USA (1) usembassy (1) User Studies (1) USSR (1) Variety of Libraries (2) Verma S C (1) Vernacular Libraries (1) Video Lessons (1) Video Repository (1) Vidyanidhi (1) Vigyan Kosh (1) VikramUniversity (2) Vohra Ranjana (2) Vysamoorthy (1) Web Research (2) Websites (1) Weeding out (1) West Africa Libraries (1) West Bengal Libraries (2) White papers (1) Wi-Fi (1) WikiEducator (1) Working Conditions (1) Writing Opportunities (2) Writing Style (1) Writing tools (2) Writing Tutorial Services (5) Zarina Khatoon Museaum and research Centre (1)

Library Classification _Britannica

Library Science_Britannica

Doctoral Research Titles in LIS

Search for them Here

Total Pageviews