Good Reads for Librarians

My Works

Libraries, Community and Technology -My recent book.

Here to Stay 3.0 - The 2002 version of the original Top Ten Reasons the Internet Will Not Replace the Public Library as revised by the author from the  1995 SLJ article.

A Survey of Internet Searches and Their Results -  Anonymous searches retrieved from the Magellan search tool were captured and analyzed. Read the full article. Also published in Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 39, #2, Winter 1999, p.177-181.

Keepers of the Flame or Turners of the Faucet? Is access the only professional value we have left? One Librarian doesn't think so.

Access and/or Selection - If access is the core of our mission, is there any room left for selection?  Why we must balance these values.

Why Library Technology Bites Back - How technology is both advancing and destroying of our profession. Available in print in Public Libraries, March-April 1999, p. 2-3.

 Professional Reading - Books

The American Public Library

*Civic Librarianship : renewing the social mission of the public library / Ronald B. McCabe. The mission of the public library has become increasingly obscure, to the extent that some claim that it no longer exists. McCabe clarifies the historical mission and calls for a library that serves its community.

The enduring library by Michael Gorman. I have hope for Gorman. He is a library giant and as such is condemned to adhere to the library line. He is conflicted though, leading the charge for establishing a set of core values for librarians. The nay sayers and those who distrust values in general stymied that effort. In his new book, he debunks the notion that the Internet can be cataloged or even should be. He argues that libraries should be selective (not public forums), is concerned about the future of cataloging, touts the importance of reading, understands the limitations of a fast-food style Internet, and believes that history extends before 1970. He even favorably mentions the words "communitarian", the natural but scorned allies of public libraries. He invokes tradition and a quest for balance. He is on the verge of being a neo-traditionalist and is almost a Taoist Librarian.

Civic Space / Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age /  Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain. MIT Press, 1999.

.The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Lawrence Lessig. He goes in great but understandable detail over the current copyright case. He gave a short interview in LJ recently, which might be enough for some people, but he writes well and actually cares about the same things librarians do. 

Better together by Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein. A look at the importance of community and cooperative action that focuses on a number of projects around the US. Of note, Chicago Public Library and their neighborhood branches. If you are working in a public library in the 21st century, this book is much more important that any futurist fantasy or tech-based vision

Free Culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity by Lawrence Lessig. Eye opening look at copyright law, especially relevant for librarians. A mite technical, but well worth the effort.

The Importance of Books, Free Access and Libraries as Place - and the Dangerous Inadequacy of the Information Science Paradigm by Thomas Mann. He makes many of the points that I do in my book and a few that are more important to an academic librarian. Well researched and well written, a perfect antidote to the mindless futurists and information scientists who seem to dominate the profession.

The American public library and the problem of purpose / Patrick Williams. Greenwood Press c1988. Librarians have always been prone to forget just what their main mission is. Williams shows us how we got to where we are today.

Web Sites and the Internet

The Big Red Fez : How to make any web site better by Seth Godin. How to improve your website. A brief title, with 50 ideas and an example for each. Short, cheap and worth your time.

Don't make me think by Steve Krug. Since we all seem to have web sites ( I supervise my library's award winning site and two personal sites), it is important to consider usability. This book is a useful complement to Jacok Nielsen's works and the www.useit.com website. It provides a solid overview, without wasting time on specifics. A good first book for librarians. 

Digital imaging : a practical handbook by Stuart D. Lee. As advertised, practical, with decision matrices, checklists and more. Also a good introduction, with sections explaining resolution, bit depth and explaining when to use various digital methods. Veddy British, with most prices in Pounds, and full of programmes and centres. Most useful for academics since it deals with larger projects and does not sufficiently cover the paths that most public libraries will use. Read it, but don't be discouraged by the emphasis. Pricey ($20 more than my book), so you might want to borrow rather than buy.

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir. They propose over 100 rules for good website design and then closely examine 50 websites, critiquing what is good and what is not, what works and what interferes. Expensive ($39.95 list) but worth the price.  Buy it, read it and you will immediately want to redesign your website.

Small pieces loosely joined: a unified theory of the web by David Weinberger is worth reading, but has a misleading subtitle. It is more in the nature of a meditation on what the web is and isn't and what metaphors best apply. From the co-author of The Cluetrain manifesto. I usually hate manifestos, but this one was breezy rather than didactic, so it was fun rather than a chore.

The Impact of Technology

Being Analog : creating tomorrow's libraries / Walt Crawford. A library veteran looks at the very real importance of non-digital living and the fallacies associated with digital propaganda. Crawford is also co-author of Future Libraries, the best library book of the 1990s and still worth reading.

Blown to bits : how the new economics of information transforms strategy / Philip Evans, Thomas S. Wurster. An expansion of their article (below) that gives a guide to just how revolutionary the new economics will be, how to survive and what can be saved.

Flickering mind : the false promise of technology in the classroom and how learning can be saved by Todd Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer looked behind the curtain and found the emperor has no clothes. He visited dozens of high-tech schools, interviewed techies and read the research and found that the billions spent on technology have had little positive effect, much less that the equivalent amount of teachers, books and solid methods would have had. Like libraries, schools chase an ever receding technological nirvana, relying on fads instead of what they know works. Destined to be ignored while we waste billions and short change our children.

Data smog : surviving the information glut / David Shenk. A long time technojunkie looks at the vast electronic wasteland and prescribes societal and individual responses. Includes his Laws of Data Smog, such as: Too many experts spoil the clarity; and Beware stories that dissolve all complexity.

The end of patience / David Shenk. How the pace of computers has become our pace and the effects that has.

The fortune sellers : the big business of buying and selling predictions / William A Sherden. We spend over $200 billion a year on predictions annually. Why are they soooooo inaccurate? Why are technology predictions so rarely right? Sherden provides a guide to this "industry" and its practitioners

High tech heretic/ Clifford Stoll. The author of Silicon Snake Oil returns to ask uncomfortable questions. The subtitle: "why computers don't belong in the classroom and other reflections by a computer contrarian" says it all.

Information ecologies : using technology with heart / Bonnie A. Nardi and Vicki L. O'Day. Two former corporate librarians apply environmental thought to information needs, claiming that no one source could, or should, fill all needs. Makes a nice case for libraries in a chapter.

Technopoly : the surrender of culture to technology / Neil Postman. Polemic and a bit of a manifesto, but well worth reading. Based on the truism that if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, Postman looks at our use of computers and how it deforms our thinking and culture.

Upon the objects to be attained by the establishment of a public library : report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1852. J.H. Eastburn, printer, 1852. <http://www.scls.lib.wi.us/mcm/history/report_of_trustees.html> (November 30, 2001).

Why things bite back : technology and the revenge of unintended consequences / Edward Tenner. Technology always strikes back and usually in surprisingly predictable ways. Anyone working with technology should be aware of the the main categories of unintended consequences, so they can at least explain why things went wrong.

Professional Reading - Articles and Reports

Absolutism on access and confidentiality: principled or irresponsible? / William E. Sheerin. American Libraries, May 1991, v.22, n.5, p440. A trustee looks at purist and absolutist stances and questions ALA's  insistence on absolutism. 

Accessibility of information on the web by Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles. Nature, v. 400, 8 July 1999, p. 107-109. Just how much porn is on the web? How often are search engines used? ACTUAL DATA, not just guesses.

The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World./ Clifford Lynch.  First Monday, volume 6, number 6 (June 2001), <http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_6/lynch/index.html> . (November 30, 2001) How books and e-books are defined, marketed and sold matters - a great deal. Long, but every page is worth it.

Buildings, books and bytes : libraries and communities in the digital age. Benton Foundation, 1996, <http://www.benton.org/Library/Kellogg/buildings.html> (November 30, 2001). A thoughtful look at libraries and what they should be doing. 

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large. This monthly on-line magazine by Walt Crawford surveys a wide range of articles and features commentary, opinions and occasional tantrums. Crawford is definitely One Librarian. We could use a dozen more like him.

Earth's largest library - panacea or anathema?: a socio-technical analysis / Mark E. Napier & Kathleen A Smith. Center for Social Informatics, SLIS, Indiana University. May 2000. <http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp00-02.html> .  A closer look at some of the flaws and logical disconnects involved in Coffman's proposals for converting libraries into an Amazon.com clone.

The ethical presumptions behind the Library Bill of Rights / Martin Fricke, Kay Mathiesen, Don Fallis. Library Quarterly, October 2000, v.70, i4, p. 468. Since most libraries adopt the Library Bill of Rights, just what are they accepting?

How should the public library respond to public demand? / Patrick Williams. Library Journal, October 15, 1990. "Give 'em what they want" vs "Give 'em what they out to have" is a false dichotomy. As a government agency, libraries exist to fill a public NEED.

The Importance of Books, Free Access and Libraries as Place - and the Dangerous Inadequacy of the Information Science Paradigm by Thomas Mann - is my read of the month. He makes many of the points that I do in my book and a few that are more important to an academic librarian. Well researched and well written, a perfect antidote to the mindless futurists and information scientists that seem to dominate our profession.

Metacrap : putting the torch to seven straw-men of meta-uptopia / Cory Doctorow. v1.3 26 August 2001. <http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm>. Some people plan on using metadata to organize the Internet. Why not let PR flacks write history and run the United Nations? 

Public Library Policy and Communitarianism by Ron McCabe. Public Libraries, January/February 1998, p. 67. While most librarians focus on serving individuals, McCabe urges us to serve communities. Short and to the point. Not available on-line.

Persuasion online or on paper : a new take on an old issue / P. K. Murphy et al. (August 2000). This report looks at college students and finds that they consider print more persuasive (authoritative and believable) than on-line documents, even when reading identical text. 

Strategy and the Internet / Michael E. Porter  Harvard Business Review, March 2001, vol. 79, #3, p. 62+). Does the Internet change everything? No. A guide to the post-bust world that has important messages for librarians. It looks like the old economy with some new technology added. BTW, Porter is one of the few management gurus who understands that the future is not predictable and that any successful strategy must be flexible and reactive.

The Roles of the Public Library in Society – The Results of a National Survey. Urban Libraries Council, 1993. According to our patrons, the library is an educational institution. Useful information, even if you believe that libraries exist to "give 'em what they want." What they want is an educational focus.

Strategy and the new economics of information by Philip Evans and Thomas Wurster. Harvard Business Review, Sept-Oct 1997, v.75, n5 p. 70 (13). Later expanded into a book (above) but all the essentials are present here.

Yahoo! and the abdication of judgment / Laura B. Cohen. American Libraries, January 2001, vol. 32, issues 1, p. 60.  One of many places we abdicate our responsibilities and declare that no judgments should be made - declaring our profession dead. Bravo!

Professional Reading - Web Sites

Overdue. If you haven't seen it, Overdue is a daily on-line comic strip about a library. Always amusing and often very on target. 

Humor and Culture in Libraries - From Conan the Librarian to the Marginal Librarian, a collection of the best (?) or at least funniest librarian sites.

Lipstick Librarian - "She's Bold!! She's Sassy!! She's Helpful!!: The stereotypical perception of a librarian as a cold, schoolmarmish bookworm suffused with Eau de Mothball is about to change, if this site has anything to do with it."

Shy Librarian -  Promoting libraries, librarians and books. A web site that cares about books? Of course it is from librarians.

Tom Barnett’s Current Bibliography for Thinking About Alternative Global Futures - A intriguing list of articles and books about the future from a Senior Strategic Researcher at the U.S. Naval War College. He's brilliant, well read and my brother.