Finally, my first blog post and I hate that it’s going to be negative. But I can delete it later, right?
Actually, it’s not the first. Last month I was reading Brian Mathew’s Ubiquitous Librarian and wrote these thoughts in an email to myself;>)
I forget that he has a blog but every once in a while I get far enough down on the CHE online page to see the link. Always enjoy reading them. Today’s is about linking between online books. Haven’t finished it yet but what struck me is that he’s got an illustration of a shelf of his books. How would he illustrate his collection of online books? His list of files wouldn’t be nearly as visually interesting.
I’ve been reading more online since I got the easily transportable MacAir, and I don’t feel like I need an ebook reader. Wouldn’t it be just another device to put in the bag I carry to/from the library where I work (in addition to my lunch and empty containers)? I still read paper every night before I go to sleep.
Another concern is that I download and put in my Read folder things I think I’d like to read. Often I get to them but sometimes not and I can see that folder growing like a poorly managed library collection that’s rarely weeded. I don’t like the thought of downloading and not reading lots of books. [When will we stop calling the ebooks, ejournals, ETDs, etc. and just books, journals, etc.?]
How do blogs intersect? If I wanted to put this in mine and Brian’s both?
A Q for Brian: how would I allow or disallow people to interact w/me? Suppose there’s somebody who I don’t respect who wants to influence my reading? And, yes, I want to separate my mystery novels from my digital preservation and cost modeling articles.
Totally agree: “It’s not about losing what’s in the stacks; it’s about greater access to content that is linked together more effectively.”
Anyway, today I’m reading McLuhan’s “Galaxy Reconfigured” for the NMR seminar and, so far, not liking it much. Normally I think I’m pretty literate and have a decent vocabulary, but not when I’m reading McLuhan. I somehow didn’t read him when I was in college in the late 60s in California, I must have gotten by by reading about what he said.
Back to it.